ACROSS THE POND – EXHIBITION
Reception: Thursday April 17, 2025
6.30 – 8.30pm
Otis College of Art and Design presents a solo thesis exhibition of new paintings by Master of Fine Arts candidate Georgina Clapham.
Across the Pond, speaks to Clapham’s physical journey back and forth from London, UK to her current home of Los Angeles. She combines her European painting training with a contemporary American influence, uniting multiple approaches to oil painting on the historical surface of linen. For Clapham this feels like a haunted act but also embodies her experience of breaking free.
Confronting the tragicomic nature of living in 21st century society, Clapham highlights the slippages and deadpan British humour that occurs when things are lost in translation. She conjures synthetic hyper-realities, laced with heartache and prospect, that transport the viewer beyond time to an imaginary realm of possibility. Nature, animals and artificiality are juxtaposed throughout the works, as markers of the ‘Los Angeles’ landscape and lifestyle, where the man-made and majestic are squeezed together into one big façade.
With a focus on female sexuality and the psyche, surrogate self-portraits depict the intimate and the absurd of everyday somatic experiences, such as painting, weighing yourself and sunbathing, through the gaze of the artist’s struggle with body dysmorphia. Class and cultural incongruencies are filtered through clothing and accessories, among other things. She uses the tropes of advertising to unpack the production of desire, observing how color palettes and certain symbols, such as fashion items are kept alive in popular culture through endless reconfigurations and narratives.
The installation examines the flatness of the paintings surface, in comparison with our relationship to the screen and the seduction and chaos of contemporary content consumption, mimicking the push and pull of digital and physical reality. Exaggerated physiognomies mimic filters and in an environment where our news and meaning making is fractured and distorted; they serve as reminders of the fragility of our own individual realities.
Georgina Clapham (b.1993) UK is a candidate to receive her MFA from Otis College of Art and Design, LA (2025). She holds a BA (Hons) in Painting and Printmaking from The Glasgow School of Art (2016) and completed an intensive drawing program at The Royal Drawing School, London (2017). Clapham is a recipient of numerous awards and scholarships including the Plop Residency, London (2019), ‘The Richard Ford Award’ studying the collection at the Museo del Prado, Madrid (2015),‘The Martha Alf Foundation Scholarship’ (2024) and the ‘June Yuer Memorial Scholarship’ (2024). Her work has been exhibited across the UK and internationally, holding her debut solo show at Triumph Gallery, Moscow (2018). Notable selected group exhibitions include: ‘New Contemporaries,’ The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (2017), Royal Glasgow Institute of The Fine Arts, Glasgow, (2017), Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh (2017), Collyer Bristow Gallery, London (2020), Public Gallery, London (2020), Everyday Gallery, Antwerp (2021), Mash Gallery, LA (2023) and Port Art Fair with Fabula Gallery, St. Petersburg (2023), Good Mother Gallery, LA (2023), Lobster Club, LA (2025). She has also collaborated with fashion designer Dilara Fındıkoğlu in London Fashion Week (2020). Permanent collections include The Royal Academy, London and The Glasgow School of Art Archive collection. Her work has been featured in online publications such as L’Officiel, Russia, Metal Magazine, UK and The World Of Interiors, UK and SHOWstudio, UK founded by Nick Knight. Clapham lives and works in Los Angeles.
Contact: www.georginaclapham.com / @georgina.clapham
Campus Access and Parking:
Enter campus through the parking garage or the red pedestrian gate on La Tijera Boulevard. Visitors can contact Campus Safety via the call buttons or at +1 (310) 665 6965 to let security know that they are visiting the MFA thesis exhibition. All campus visitors must check in with security upon arrival and are encouraged to speed up their check-in by completing a form prior to arrival.
