Page 8 - Art at Mayfair Hotel Tunneln

Anna Ilsley: The Hazardous Expedition To The Vintage Emporium I, 2019. Oil on board, 30.5 x 24 cm.
Anna Ilsley’s work The Hazardous Expedition To The Vintage Emporium I is in different ways representative of the artist’s practice. She works with portraying female types that often are pictured in sensual contexts. Ilsley unites the sensitive and sometimes semi-transparent painting with female sexuality. The uncovered woman is a very famous motive in Western art history and traditionally the naked female has been portrayed by the male artist and shown to the male audience. Ilsley’s works suggest a new way of approaching this motive. She reinterprets the naked female body and narrates a new story of female sexuality. She evokes curiosity and a humoristic playful attitude to her motives. Here, the male gaze is removed and instead Ilsley’s gaze appears and gives a feminine treatment of female sexuality.
Anna Ilsley (1982, UK) holds a BA in Fine Art Painting from Brighton University and a post- graduate degree in drawing from the Royal Drawing School, London. Ilsley has exhibited at Saatchi Gallery, UK; Rose Lipman Gallery, UK; Field Projects Gallery, US; Kristin Hjellegjerde, UK; 12 Star Gallery, UK, and Galleri Tom Christoffersen, DK, among others. Ilsley’s work is represented at British School at Athens, (EL); Soho House, UK; Wellington Club, UK, and at Beijing Capital Museum, CHN, among others. In 2020, she was artist in residence at Newnham College, University of Cambridge.
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