Alexa Hawksworth

Through oil painting and graphite drawings inhabited by real and surreal figures, Alexa Hawksworth captures a wide variety of natures, both physical and psychological. Her characters have rictus grins, limbs that stretch and bend in unnatural ways, bordering on the comical and grotesque. Her paintings exist in their own temporality, a parallel world where forms are elongated, thrown, and twisted across the canvas. There are different rules in Hawksworth’s reality; our understanding of physics and the natural order of things does not exist there. Her fantastical and unreal compositions capture deep emotional states and desires, erupting from the canvas through vibrant color palettes. While her paintings exist in a world unlike our own, we can see our own depth of feeling reflected back at us. Her influences range from theater, performance, and film, and she generates carefully constructed scenes with immense detail and bold paint strokes, displaying an incredible understanding of color and mood. ...

Public is a contemporary art gallery in East London with a diverse international programme focused on emerging artists.