London Art Fair Platform 2023: Reframing the Muse

"I am excited to be curating 2023’s edition of Platform, which will shine a spotlight on art history’s most enduring subject: the muse.

Based on my recently published book ‘Muse’ (Penguin, 2022), the exhibition aims to reclaim the term in a narrative that celebrates the contributions of artists’ remarkable, real-life models as active agents in the story of art. It will offer audiences a new vision of the muse, across age, race, gender, gazes and sexuality, inviting visitors to look at portraiture from a brand-new perspective.

Platform 2023 will highlight the diverse individuals, past and present, who have inspired artists to draw, sculpt, paint or photograph their immortalising portrait. Turning the tables on traditional accounts, it will invite questions about the collaborative role of the muse, beyond romanticised notions of the passive model. Taking centre stage, these muses will prove that they have long commanded a crucial place in art history, while they are still an influential force in today’s contemporary art world."

- Ruth Millington

I am thrilled to announce that I am curating 2023’s edition of Platform at London Art Fair with the theme, ‘Reframing the Muse’! The exhibition, based on my recently published book ‘Muse’ (Penguin, 2022), will present 8 galleries whose artists collaborate with inspiring individuals, reframing the muse as an empowered and active agent in the story of art.

Today, our perception of the muse is that of a powerless female model, at the mercy of an influential and older male artist. But this trope, perpetuated by popular culture and the media, is a romanticised myth. Far from posing silently, muses have brought emotional support, intellectual energy, career-changing creativity and practical help to artists, and they continue to do so.

Motherhood is a central theme in Platform, with an emphasis on the female gaze.

Courtesy of Cynthia Corbett Gallery, Ashley January’s own traumatic pregnancy and the survival of her prematurely-born son informs her unfiltered paintings of Black mothers and children. Centring their experiences, with motifs structured around the rituals of care, she addresses the Black maternal mortality crisis in America, where Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women.

Julian Opie ...has taken himself as his own nude muse with the playful sculpture ‘Julian Nude Arms Crossed’. It’s a statement that women artists have made throughout the centuries, using their image as a rebellious means of asserting their identity. Isabelle van Zeijl, takes up this mantle today through striking photographic self-portraits. Having experienced first-hand sex-based prejudice and violence, van Zeijl redefines feminine power through her lens, acting as survivor, artist and subject in ‘I LOVE HER I’.

Audiences, too, are invited to participate as they pose before the interactive mirror, ‘No Photos Please’ by Eve de Haan. “This piece is all about my conflicting relationship with social media. The real question is how can an app make you feel like you need to share private moments with the whole world, and to what avail?” the artist asks. As the “No” flickers on and off, this clever work of art requires reflection, in both senses of the term, from the collaborative viewer, proving that artists still need their muse.

This ‘MUSE ‘Reframing the Muse’ Platform will be accompanied by an events programme, including a related performance and a panel discussion in partnership with Sotheby’s Institute of Art, about the role of the muse in the modern world.

Artists Making Powerful Contemporary Art About Motherhood

Where would art history be without mothers? Many a great male artist’s wife or female partner has taken on the responsibility of childcare, thus allowing them the time and space to work without interruption. Mothers have also been the inspiring muse of painters, sculptors and photographers, from Édouard Vuillard to James Whistler. Yet, at the same time, the art world has historically discriminated against, and downplayed, the contributions of mothers, many of them artists in their own right. But today, the art world is increasingly celebrating artists mothers and women making contemporary art about motherhood, giving them the recognition they deserve.

Based on their own lived experiences, here are important artists making contemporary art about motherhood, using their inside gaze to redefine art history’s mother and child motif for a modern era. Embracing the complexities and contradictions of parenthood, they are also offering viewers a more authentic and expansive view of motherhood.

Many other contemporary artists have reflected on motherhood in their art by taking their very own mothers as inspiring muse, without submitting to reductive stereotypes.

Ashley January’s own traumatic pregnancy and the survival of her prematurely-born son informs her unfiltered paintings of Black mothers and children. Centring their experiences, with motifs structured around the rituals of care, she addresses the Black maternal mortality and morbidity crisis in America, where Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. As she explains, her images are meant to “serve as a global call to action for more awareness, research, and the eradication of unnecessary maternal and infant death.”

In her complex, coming of age paintings, including the ‘Maman et Muses’ series, Scottish-born Chinese figurative painter Elaine Woo MacGregor reflects on her role as an artist and mother, and the relationship with her children, Carina and Ramona. Her dreamscape paintings, defined by a fragmented storyboard quality combine important fleeting moments of time and memories to capture the psychological intimacy between the artist and her children, which is forever shifting as they grow up.

Speaking about the painting ‘Garden Party’ (2022), she says: “Children don’t stay children forever. It is the feeling of witnessing the ‘coming of age’ happening to your own children. Here my daughter Carina aged 9 is looking at you, there’s a feeling of play and flirtatious femininity. The colourful brushstrokes suggestive of a garden is reminiscent of Impressionist gardens, and lying in the centre is a girl perhaps taking a rest from play? Whilst creating this work, it made me also think of strong female protagonists in films by Wong Kar Wai, Pedro Almodovar and Quentin Tarantino. The young femme fatales – fille fatale.”

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Ashley January (born 1987, Rantoul, Illinois) studied Bradley University and then Laguna College of Art and Design. She has exhibited in group exhibitions including, South Side Community Arts Center, The Balm: Art for Black Women’s Wellness, in Chicago (2021); Mana Contemporary, In Good Company, in Chicago (2022); Alliance Contemporary, Embodied and Endangered, in Chicago (2022); and is due to have a solo exhibition at the Beverly Arts Center in August 2022 in Chicago.

January addresses the growing crisis of the Black maternal mortality and morbidity rate in America through painting and multimedia. Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. January’s first pregnancy abruptly ended with a traumatic delivery. She was diagnosed with preeclampsia at 32 weeks and four days. Two days later, she delivered by emergency c-section. Her baby boy was born prematurely with a low birth weight of two pounds and thirteen ounces. Mothers who have suffered similar complications that lead to more adverse birth outcomes are considered to be a “near miss” - meaning that they suffered severe maternal morbidity (SMM), in which Black women are disproportionately affected.

Motherhood, for Black women, is not detached from the state of being “Black” in the United States. For us, the decision to enter motherhood involves considerable risk, personal identity, healthcare disparities, burden-bearing and survival. While uplifting Black mothers and children, the images and sound narratives January creates serve as a call to action for more awareness, research, and eradication of unnecessary maternal and infant death in the United States of America.

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Elaine Woo MacGregor is a Scottish-born Chinese artist trained in the Glasgow School of Art. She graduated with a Bachelors Degree with honours, acquired a studio and began working as a full-time artist. MacGregor began to be noticed as a serious and thoughtful painter and her first solo exhibition was 'Portraits' in Glasgow.

Elaine Woo MacGregor's work encapsulates the world seen through the eyes of a cross-cultural artist. She uses eclectic mark making and imagery to create atmospheric and theatrical scenes. Although her painted stories are often fictitious, elements of the picture are based on real people, places and things. Elaine Woo MacGregor’s narrative is drawn from everyday life, dreams, films, and folklore. She works in the domestic tradition of great women artists like Berthe Morisot to Paula Rego.

Elaine Woo MacGregor has exhibited in galleries in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Cambridge and abroad. One of her works - 'Hotel No.4' - is in the public galleries collection, the Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport. MacGregor's work has been shown in the U.K, U.S.A, Australia and Thailand and critically recognised by virtue of the Dewar Arts Award, the James Torrance Memorial Award, the Hope Scott Trust Award and the Cross Trust Fund.

Elaine Woo MacGregor is internationally represented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery since 2022.

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Eve De Haan is a young London-based artist of English and Mauritian heritage, with an incredible appetite for creativity. Her degree in Theology has informed and influenced her work, developing a strong body of installations which examine concepts of change and the imprint technology is having on youth culture.

She has exhibited in Europe and the U.S in iconic galleries such as the Saatchi gallery and the Museum of Neon in LA. She was recently invited to lead on an Instagram Live for Tate London. She has had billboards in London, created artwork for Nike & been featured in major publications. Her creations are provocative and challenging. Through her love of the written word Eve finds neon the perfect medium to explore the gradients and shades of meaning within a statement.

In April 2021 Eve De Haan shone a light on London streets and women’s safety issues with an illuminated billboard, promoting Reclaim These Streets ‘Text Me When You Get Home’ campaign aiming to make the UK a safer, fairer place for women. We are proud to be offering for acquisition the #4/4 Archival print created by Eve in addition to the billboard.

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Ashley January (born 1987, Rantoul, Illinois) studied Bradley University and then Laguna College of Art and Design. She has exhibited in group exhibitions including, South Side Community Arts Center, The Balm: Art for Black Women’s Wellness, in Chicago (2021); Mana Contemporary, In Good Company, in Chicago (2022); Alliance Contemporary, Embodied and Endangered, in Chicago (2022); and is due to have a solo exhibition at the Beverly Arts Center in August 2022 in Chicago.

January addresses the growing crisis of the Black maternal mortality and morbidity rate in America through painting and multimedia. Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. January’s first pregnancy abruptly ended with a traumatic delivery. She was diagnosed with preeclampsia at 32 weeks and four days. Two days later, she delivered by emergency c-section. Her baby boy was born prematurely with a low birth weight of two pounds and thirteen ounces. Mothers who have suffered similar complications that lead to more adverse birth outcomes are considered to be a “near miss” - meaning that they suffered severe maternal morbidity (SMM), in which Black women are disproportionately affected.

Motherhood, for Black women, is not detached from the state of being “Black” in the United States. For us, the decision to enter motherhood involves considerable risk, personal identity, healthcare disparities, burden-bearing and survival. While uplifting Black mothers and children, the images and sound narratives January creates serve as a call to action for more awareness, research, and eradication of unnecessary maternal and infant death in the United States of America.

"I address the Black maternal mortality and morbidity crisis in America through painting and multimedia. Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. Influenced by my own traumatic pregnancy and survival, the imagery centers the experiences of Black mothers and children who have suffered adverse birth outcomes but challenge the institutional modes in finding solutions. Defying themes of experienced birth trauma during pregnancy and postpartum are composed through quiet familial motifs. The environments articulate the imposed health effects disproportionately experienced. The images serve as a global call to action for more awareness, research, and the eradication of unnecessary maternal and infant death."

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Elaine Woo MacGregor is a Scottish-born Chinese artist trained in the Glasgow School of Art. She graduated with a Bachelors Degree with honours, acquired a studio and began working as a full-time artist. MacGregor began to be noticed as a serious and thoughtful painter and her first solo exhibition was 'Portraits' in Glasgow.

Elaine Woo MacGregor's work encapsulates the world seen through the eyes of a cross-cultural artist. She uses eclectic mark making and imagery to create atmospheric and theatrical scenes. Although her painted stories are often fictitious, elements of the picture are based on real people, places and things. Elaine Woo MacGregor’s narrative is drawn from everyday life, dreams, films, and folklore. She works in the domestic tradition of great women artists like Berthe Morisot to Paula Rego.

Elaine Woo MacGregor has exhibited in galleries in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Cambridge and abroad. One of her works - 'Hotel No.4' - is in the public galleries collection, the Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport. MacGregor's work has been shown in the U.K, U.S.A, Australia and Thailand and critically recognised by virtue of the Dewar Arts Award, the James Torrance Memorial Award, the Hope Scott Trust Award and the Cross Trust Fund.

Elaine Woo MacGregor is internationally represented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery since 2022.

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‘America has Lichtenstein, we have Azzopardi!’ - Estelle Lovatt FRSA

Deborah Azzopardi acquired worldwide fame for her joyous Pop Art images she has created over the past 35 years. Her unique and feminine take on contemporary art is best described by the esteemed art critic Estelle Lovatt: ‘America has Lichtenstein, we have Azzopardi!’ Lovatt goes on to comment: “Sometimes you just want to curl up under a blanket. With a good book. A piece of chocolate. A man. This is what Deborah Azzopardi’s pictures make me feel like doing. They are me. They remind me of the time I had a red convertible sports car. I had two, actually. And yes, they are you, too. You immediately, automatically, engage with the narrative of Azzopardi’s conversational visual humour. Laughter is the best aphrodisiac, as you know. ... There’s plenty of art historical references from... Manet’s suggestive ‘Olympia’; Boucher’s thought-provoking... ‘Louise O’Murphy’ and Fragonard’s frivolous, knickerless, ‘The Swing’.... Unique in approach, you easily recognise an Azzopardi picture. ... Working simple graphics and toned shading (for depth), the Pop Art line that Azzopardi sketches is different to Lichtenstein’s. Hers is more curvaceous. Feminine.”

The world is familiar with Azzopardi’s artworks, as many of them have been published internationally. Her original paintings, such as the Habitat ‘Dating’ series (2004/08), the iconic ...One Lump Or Two? (2014) and Love Is The Answer (2016), created by the artist at the request of Mitch and Janis Winehouse as a tribute to their daughter, are in great demand. This year Azzopardi was commissioned to create two works celebrating the late Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee. The first, making use of platinum leaf, silver leaf, and diamond dust, presents an image of the young queen rendered in symbols of her long reign. The second, an image of Her Majesty’s coronation shoe done in silver and gold leaf, celebrates the design by Roger Vivier which allowed her to endure the 3-hour coronation.

Deborah Azzopardi is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

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In a contemporary art world that condemns beauty as camouflage for conceptual shallowness, championing high aesthetics is nothing short of rebellion. Dutch photographer Isabelle Van Zeijl takes female beauty ideals from the past, and sabotages them in the context of today. As a women she experiences prejudices against women; misogyny in numerous ways including sex discrimination, belittling/violence against women and sexual objectification. Van Zeijl aestheticises these prejudices in her work to visually discuss this troubling dichotomy, presenting a new way of seeing female beauty. An oppressive idealisation of beauty is tackled in her work through unique female character and emotion.

Van Zeijl is invested in her images. By using subjects that intrigue and evoke emotion, she reinvents herself over and over and has created a body of work to illustrate these autobiographical narratives. Her work takes from all she experiences in life - she is both model, creator, object and subject. Going beyond the realm of individual expression, so common in the genre of self-portraiture, she strives to be both universal and timeless, with a

Isabelle Van Zeijl, born and based in the Netherlands is an internationally acclaimed Fine Art Photographer. She was nominated for the Prix De La Photographie Paris, The Fine Art Photography Awards and was one of the winners of The Young Masters 2017 Emerging Woman Art Prize, London. Her work is held in prominent private & public collections in the USA, Europe, UK, Australia and Asia.

Isabelle Van Zeijl is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

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Ramon Omolaja Adeyemi (born 1978, Lagos) studied the Higher National Diploma (HND) in Fine and Applied Art. He then joined the National Gallery of Art in Nigeria, becoming the Principle Technical Officer.

Ramon further gained recognition when he was placed third in the British Portrait of the Year Competition 2022.

Yam Seller (2022) is an oil painting portrayed to promote the value and contribution of yams to economic growth and development. From cultivation, to harvesting and marketing, yam have a great economic value. However, this painting only aims at the marketing of yam which has to do with its promotion both locally and internationally. It aims at drawing people's attention to hidden prosperity in yam business by facilitating intellectual curiosity on how to generate income doing yam business.

In Nigeria, yam business is a profitable food business. Yams also signify cultural importance in some areas which go beyond their dietary importance. A bountiful harvest of the crop by a farmer shows his wealth, skill, and economic power. It is hoped that identifying with this painting will increase interest in the promotion of yams not just as a staple, but rather as a tool to improve our economy.

“Punctuality is the soul of business”. This quote perfectly describes the event depicted in Adeyemi’s oil painting Waiting for customers.

The shoe repairers are seen seated at their usual spot early in the morning waiting to provide services for those going about their business, whose shoes need to be polished or amended. The services they provide range from shoe shining to the repairing of foot wear. The plastic bucket before them is the tool box containing all they need to render services. From their poised postures and eager expressions on each of their faces, it shows they are full of expectation.

Generally, Adeyemi’s painting depicts working people at their duty post, involved in buying and selling. The skilled realism that radiates from Adeyemi’s painting emulates that of a mirror, beautifully reflecting the hard work, hope and persistence that characterises the lives of these working people. As the saying in Adeyemi’s local parlance goes, he quotes, “No food for a lazy man”.

Adeyemi’s work bares an interesting resemblance in its themes and imagery to that of Lucian Freud’s work Wasteground Paddington, painted in 1970 and currently on show at the Garden Museum in London.

Adeyemi’s textural painting that depicts creases in colourful clothing and debris decorated streets, captures the same overlooked beauty that Freud reflected on in his admiration for the overgrown and imperfect landscapes of London’s seemingly unremarkable, dilapidated back garden’s.

- Text written by Beth Cargill

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Felix Chesher (born 1997, Reading) studied at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2019. Having explored his passion for drawing people and painting portraiture as a young adult, it was the consequences of the COVID pandemic that gave Felix the time to refine his talent for oil painting and portraiture. Whilst his life was paused, Felix was able to reflect and made the conscious decision that he would focus on fulfilling his dream to become a portrait artist.

Throughout his early career, his works have already been exhibited as part of a number of competitions, including having been shortlisted for the BP Portrait Awards (National Portrait Gallery) and being exhibited in the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition at the Mall Galleries. This has led to Felix becoming an in-demand portraitist, regularly undertaking new private commissions. Today, his works are held in private collections across the U.K. and North America. The artist lives and works in London.

Chesher’s work focusses on the male form with homoerotic elements. He is best known for his provocative contemporary realist portraits of the male form. He has painted and worked with iconic and celebrated figures from the LGBTQ+ community, the focus of which formed his first solo exhibition in late 2021 which Felix described as "a positive to come from the horror of the COVID period and an opportunity to celebrate the wider LGBTQ+ community.”