Angela Lizon

Drawing on the language of 17th century Dutch art with it’s readymade gravitas - mortality, fragility, ostentation - I have been staging narratives using digital collage, photography, kitsch objects, fairies and animated vegetables, investigating the tension between high and low art.

My cultural heritage is reflected in the paintings, a blend of Polish exotica and Cockney humour, which influences the work both atmospherically, emotively and aesthetically. Lockdown 2020 gave me time to take an in-depth look at the flora and fauna of the domestic garden and to reevaluate it as subject matter alongside art historical sources. I now grow and photograph my own flowers, using the bouquet as a stage or backdrop, and intertwine my daily living with my art practice.

“Athena and Ares. Divine Retribution”. This particular painting references Greek mythology. Athena was the goddess of wisdom, often represented by an owl. Whilst Ares was her counterpart, god of war mongering and blood lust, represented by a dog in renaissance art. Hence this painting can be read as an allegory for wisdom triumphing over aggression. Athena’s mice henchmen reference The Tale of Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter, a story of two mice who vandalise a doll’s house.

On a Bed of Daffodil Sky plays with the still-life genre, animating a traditional flower painting with kitsch ornaments.