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Chloe Barnes

Discipline:

Artist, Printmaker

Location:

London

ABOUT:

I am an award-winning London-based artist creating figurative monoprints about identity, emotion, the psyche, and the experience of women, including my own. My work uses distorted forms, blurred or masked faces, and human-animal hybrids to invite the viewer to imagine themselves as the subject of the scene and find resonance in both the familiar and fantastical.

Each piece begins with a feeling, which I follow freely, embracing the speed constraints and
unpredictability of the monoprinting process to ‘paint with print’ and push against conventional
ideas of perfection. Intuitive mark-making, expressive movements, and ‘mistakes’ are all integral to my approach: ink can smear, lines can bleed, and the mirrored image can look entirely different from the painted plate. By exploring my own experience through artistic introspection, I also aim to empower other women to see themselves in new ways, outside of the personal, familial, and societal expectations to conform to traditional gender roles, authority, and power dynamics.

As part of my practice, I work with found film photography of anonymous subjects, combining these sources with my own self-portrait photos and charcoal studies to consider how we form who we are and our relationship to our bodies. In the final monoprinted artworks, I retain the white border of vintage snapshots to suggest a glimpse into something private: a window to look inward, without shame, enabling connection with intangible emotions and reframing perceived vulnerabilities.

My work has been exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, and the Royal Society of British Artists Bicentennial Exhibition, where I won the Hahnemühle Fine Art Award. In 2023, I was selected as a finalist for the ACS Studio Prize and The Margate Art Prize, judged by Tracey Emin. I hold an MA (Distinction) in Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking from the University of the West of England.

WORKS:

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'Working Class Creatives' responds to a need which is too often overlooked in the arts; that of the barriers facing working-class artists from getting on in our sector. They are instrumental in initiating much-needed change that will see the art world become more inclusive and reflect the society it purports to serve. I often search their database in my research, it is a vital resource for any arts professional working in culture today. That they have got this far on so little financial resource is remarkable and I am excited to see what they will achieve with further support.” Beth Hughes, Curator, Arts Council Collection.

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