Responding to an increasingly digitalised world where images and time periods merge and appear in one seemingly eternal present, Harriet Gillett hopes to slow down these increasingly fast-paced encounters into images of reverie. Taking reference from the emotionally charged vibrancy of post-Impressionism and the devotional nature of Western religious formats, her combination of traditional subjects with contemporary materials enables her to tread a line between multiple perspectives and time periods.
She works from sketches made in the moment, usually of friends in pubs and at live gigs, later attempting to capture these communities and atmospheres within her paintings. Working predominantly with oil and spray paint, she layers thin veils of colour over a warm fluorescent spray paint ground that is reminiscent of the gold within icon paintings and a “rose-tinted” lens. This enables the work to position itself between the past and present, the traditional and the contemporary, both in terms of its imagery and its materiality.
Paint operates as a metaphor for both instability and potential transformation, allowing for a fluidity of form, blurring the line between the experienced and the imagined. The same images are repeated across multiple scales, shifting personal memories into the symbolic realm. She often uses lyrics from songs and literature within the titles or sides of paintings to add another layer of perspective.
The paintings become dreamlike and lyrical explorations of identity; moving between intimate snapshots that evoke something more personal and scaled-up sketchbook pages that take on an immersive and more universal quality.
Harriet Gillett (East Yorkshire) is an artist living and working in London. She received her MA in Fine Art at City and Guilds art school in 2022 after studying a BA in English Literature at Edinburgh University (2017). Group shows include exhibitions at Brooke Benington, Roman Road, Delphian x Saatchi, Badr El Jundi Gallery, Tube Culture Hall, Melzi Fine Art and duos with Soho Revue and New Normal Projects. She was shortlisted for the Ingram prize in 2020 and was one of the 2023 New Contemporaries. This year she undertook the Palazzo Monti Residency and her debut solo show opened at LAMB gallery, London in September.