"Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war.'
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Artist statement
Armed with paint brushes and buckets of oil paints, provocateur-vandal and anonymous artivist Oneslutriot is bubbling up from the underbelly of London. She has strong roots within the underground art scene of London and has showcased her art across Europe and recently in New York. She is currently working towards her MFA degree at New York Academy of Arts, and her debut solo show.
For her, commercial “conscious” art is fake and worthless - another accessory for the privileged. For her, art is freedom, a militant medium to reflect injustice that she perceives. For her, art is war.
Her body of work navigates around complex figurative compositions and portraiture inspired by Bacchanalia, German expressionism, and modernist painting. She has been studying the floating movements in the works of old masters such as Nicolas Poussin and Paul Rubens as well as more recent and contemporary artists such as Lucian Freud, Egon Schiele and Jenny Saville.
Her early years of studio practice analyze mass media’s disassociating effect on females. She was inspired by pop culture’s violence towards our mental health; how it is driven by the selfie boom, replicating the idiotic perfection promoted in advertisements. Her older paintings ridicule the nature of 'superstar' behaviors found in many young girls' social media feeds; raising questions about contemporary standards, empowering females by tearing away the misrepresentative masks of She and Her. The culmination of this dystopian image is alienation from a more natural female body and shape.
Oneslutriot's more recent work has shifted from criticism of media’s toxic image of bodies to an interrogation of the societal shift brought about by body positivity movements, the queer and fetish scenes, and feminism. She gained interest in portraying people who managed to break through stereotypes and shake off the shame that most of us are brought up with; and learn to celebrate their bodies, desires, and freedoms.
To transfer these experiences onto canvas, Oneslutriot juxtaposes deformed yet anatomically rich bodies with grotesque poses; sinking the viewer into dark, mysterious reflections of reality, and delivering the feeling of the unknown - the feeling of danger. Her overall mission is to raise awareness as well as bring these questions closer to the surface as well as inspire people to positive change. While often her artworks can be understood as mockery and sarcastic, they carry a very deep sadness and truth about the outcry for help in the world where nothing is fair.
For her, commercial “conscious” art is fake and worthless - another accessory for the privileged. For her, art is freedom, a militant medium to reflect injustice that she perceives. For her, art is war.
Her body of work navigates around complex figurative compositions and portraiture inspired by Bacchanalia, German expressionism, and modernist painting. She has been studying the floating movements in the works of old masters such as Nicolas Poussin and Paul Rubens as well as more recent and contemporary artists such as Lucian Freud, Egon Schiele and Jenny Saville.
Her early years of studio practice analyze mass media’s disassociating effect on females. She was inspired by pop culture’s violence towards our mental health; how it is driven by the selfie boom, replicating the idiotic perfection promoted in advertisements. Her older paintings ridicule the nature of 'superstar' behaviors found in many young girls' social media feeds; raising questions about contemporary standards, empowering females by tearing away the misrepresentative masks of She and Her. The culmination of this dystopian image is alienation from a more natural female body and shape.
Oneslutriot's more recent work has shifted from criticism of media’s toxic image of bodies to an interrogation of the societal shift brought about by body positivity movements, the queer and fetish scenes, and feminism. She gained interest in portraying people who managed to break through stereotypes and shake off the shame that most of us are brought up with; and learn to celebrate their bodies, desires, and freedoms.
To transfer these experiences onto canvas, Oneslutriot juxtaposes deformed yet anatomically rich bodies with grotesque poses; sinking the viewer into dark, mysterious reflections of reality, and delivering the feeling of the unknown - the feeling of danger. Her overall mission is to raise awareness as well as bring these questions closer to the surface as well as inspire people to positive change. While often her artworks can be understood as mockery and sarcastic, they carry a very deep sadness and truth about the outcry for help in the world where nothing is fair.