Objects and Figures. Part I
Somaya Critchlow’s works predominantly contain, boldly imagined depictions of women occupying fantasy domestic interiors or otherwise blank spaces. To her the “objects demand, as much attention as her figures”. Their introspective meanings, considered placement and delicate depictions continue to push her practice forwards to its next level.
Words by James Ambrose
The Wait Of Silence II (Afternoon Tea), 2020
© Somaya Critchlow. Image courtesy the artist and Maximillian William, London. Photography: Kalory Photo & Video
Somaya Critchlow’s studio in Peckham, South London, is a calm, airy and tranquil space at odds with the lively neighbourhood it inhabits. Situated close to her birthplace in Streatham, when I visit on a warm spring afternoon, its walls are inhabited by numerous small-scale works and drawings, recently completed, and on view for her consideration ahead of an upcoming show.
Critchlow’s works are instantly recognisable. They predominantly contain, boldly imagined depictions of women occupying fantasy domestic interiors or otherwise blank spaces. They are paintings that prompt the viewer to consider the disparate ways in which we view and engage with gender, race, and culture. For Critchlow drawing is a therapeutic process, a feeling overwhelmingly reflected in the nature of her studio space.
Art has always played an important role in her life, coming from a family of artists and creatives. Her “grandpa Keith’s studio” was a place where she would spend many childhood day’s. Fondly she remembers sitting in his studio drawing fastidiously, “I got to learn about Islamic patterns and geometry, and it was where I first discovered oil paint. You could get lost in that room for hours, amongst piles of papers and books, in the heady, musky scent of rose incense while listening to gothic sounding classical music like The Sixteen performing Miserere Mei, Deus, it was quite a contrast to the reality of growing up in a place like Streatham”.
Visit’s in her youth to The National Gallery in central London were also commonplace and an inspiration, she says, “The first artist that I can remember knowing was probably Rembrandt and looking at all of his self-portraits, drawings, watercolours and etchings. I think I knew him in a way of trying to understand and learn about draughtsmanship and the craft of art”. It is a space she still frequents regularly and a place that has been sorely missed during the ongoing lockdowns. During our conversation, we regularly return to talking about her love of classical painting and the influence it brings to her work to this day.
“The first artist that I can remember knowing was probably Rembrandt and looking at all of his self-portraits, drawings, watercolours and etchings. I think I knew him in a way of trying to understand and learn about draughtsmanship and the craft of art”
Figure Holding A Little Teacup, 2019
© Somaya Critchlow. Image courtesy the artist and Maximillian William, London. Photography: Kalory Photo & Video
Small Fire, 2020
Collection: ICA, Miami. © Somaya Critchlow. Image courtesy the artist and the ICA, Miami, museum purchase with funds provided by Brendan Dugan. Photography: Kalory Photo & Video
Attending The Royal Drawing School was the catalyst for her practice to take the path that she continues on presently. It is where, as she explains, she had a breakthrough with her 2017 work Self portrait as Cherry, a work she holds dear and still keeps in her studio. The painting of a solitary nude figure, confronting and engaging the viewer directly bathed in a glow of pink light, is a celebration of the figure, portraiture and of painting as a whole. She explains that as a young black woman studying painting at that time, “I was frustrated because I wasn’t seeing myself in history or reflected in artwork”.
The figure is something that she has always been concerned with, its study is the reason she initially sought to attend the Royal Drawing School. The women she depicts today are all conjured from her imagination. The solitary, self-possessed women who populate the canvas appear to occupy their own realm. These figures were the overwhelming focus of her critically successful debut solo show in London Underneath a Bebop Moon at Maximillian William, London in 2020, which drew widespread acclaim and brought her work to the attention of a wider audience. On the perceived political nature of her work, heightened at the time that show was in place in the summer of 2020 she noted, “I don’t think I ever aim to make work that is political, but I think I am a politically engaged and thoughtful sort of person”.
“The women she depicts today are all conjured from her imagination.
The solitary, self-possessed women who populate the canvas appear to occupy their own realm.”
The Weight Of Silence, 2019
Collection: Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio. © Somaya Critchlow. Image courtesy of the artist, and Columbus Museum of Art, Promised Gift of the Scantland Collection. Photography: Kalory Photo & Video
Grandaddy Clock, 2018
© Somaya Critchlow. Image courtesy the artist and Maximillian William, London. Photography: Kalory Photo & Video
“She explained that she wanted to situate her figures in “real-time and space” and “by weaving objects into the work” that she connected to soulfully, such as combs, mirrors and clocks was a way to achieve this.”
Her practice has continued to evolve and the paintings have started to increasingly feature and incorporate other objects in their makeup. She explained that she wanted to situate her figures in “real-time and space” and “ by weaving objects into the work” that she connected to soulfully, such as combs, mirrors and clocks was a way to achieve this. She notes that to her the “objects demand, as much attention as her figures”. Their introspective meanings, considered placement and delicate depictions continue to push her practice forwards to its next level.
In regards to the future, an institutional debut is upcoming in September, with her work selected for inclusion in the Hayward Gallery’s upcoming show Mixing It Up: Painting Today. But for the work itself, Critchlow believes her paintings have further space for scale in both a physical sense and in the makeup of the content of the pictures. An exciting prospect, that is sure to engage and challenge further our perceptions of the subjects she chooses to highlight.
Untitled (Mandolin), 2019
© Somaya Critchlow. Image courtesy the artist and Maximillian William, London. Photography: Kalory Photo & Video