Georgina Clapham, (b.1993), United Kingdom, is a painter and printmaker currently based in Los Angeles. Having graduated with a BA (Hons) at The Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, in 2016, she is currently an MFA candidate at Otis College of Art and Design, (CA), expecting to graduate in 2025. Influenced by archetypal figures in history, from fantasy, folklore or legends to celebrity and the lifestyles that have been mythologised by popular culture. Clapham combines the traditional media of oil paint on linen with screen-printmaking, creating her own contemporary mythologies that explore how we experience icons throughout time via different forms of media, from film and TV, books, billboards and the internet. Interested in unpacking the production of desire through advertising and the evolutionary status of fashion items through history, she looks at the way in which certain symbols are kept alive in mass culture through endless reconfigurations and popular narratives. Her paintings aim to reflect the chaos and seduction of contemporary content consumption through social media or virtual aspirational mood boards like Pinterest, with an awareness of the glitch and artifice of identity construction in our current climate. Through collage, drawing, painting and printmaking, her works reflect the commodification of our personal content, translating this into the physical mark by showing the breadth, or limitations, of the human hand. Using text, repetition or colour saturation to mimic the quality of an image as it degrades through multiple manipulations or reappropriations.
Education:
2023-2025 Otis College of Art and Design, MFA: Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
2016 The Royal Drawing School, London, UK.
2013-2016 The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, UK. BA (Hons) Fine Art Painting and Printmaking.
2012-2013 City & Guilds of London Art School, London, UK. UAL Foundation Diploma in Art & Design.
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
Upcoming
2025 Thesis Show, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, California, USA. April 12th - 18th.
2018 ‘Mythologies and Metamorphoses,’ Triumph Gallery, Moscow, RU.
2018 ‘Velvet at Dawn,’ Annenberg Centre, Crowthorne, UK.
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2024 ‘Who’s Afraid of the Female Psyche?’ Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, USA.
2024 ‘Nobody’s Everything,’ Mid Residency Group Show, Bolsky Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, USA.
2023 ‘The MFA’s of LA,’ Good Mother Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
2023 ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ Fabula Gallery, Port Art Fair, St. Petersburg, RU.
2023 ‘COME AS YOU ARE,’ Two-person show, The Milk Parlour, Guggleton Farm Arts, Dorset, UK.
2023 ‘IN HER ELEMENT,’ Mash Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
2022 ‘Paradox Paradise,’ MISA Art, online exhibition.
2022 ‘FOLLY,’ Dulwich College, London, UK.
2020 ‘LIMBO Part II,’ Everyday Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium.
2020 ‘LIMBO,’ Everyday Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium.
2020 ‘No Time Like The Present,’ Public Gallery, London, UK.
2020 ‘Me, Myself and I,’ Collyer Bristow Gallery, Holborn, London, UK.
2020 ‘The Tales We Tell,’ Sherborne Girls School, Dorset, UK.
2020 St. Martins Lane Hotel Restaurant, Charring Cross, London, WC2N 4HX in conjunction with Cob Gallery, London, UK.
2019 Dilara Findikoglu SS2020, London Fashion Week, Ambika P3, London, UK.
2019 ‘PLOP Residency’ Group Show, The Koppel Project, London, UK.
2017 ‘21st National Open Art Exhibition,’ Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, South Bank, London, UK.
2017 ‘Contemporary Perspectives on Printmaking,’ Mall Galleries, London, UK.
2017 ‘In The Morning it is Green,’ Arusha Gallery, 13A Dundas Street, Edinburgh, UK.
2017 ‘The RGI Glasgow School of Art Graduate Award Exhibition 2016,’ The Royal Glasgow Institute of The Fine Arts, Kelly Gallery, Glasgow, UK.
2017 ‘RSA: New Contemporaries,’ Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK.
2017 ‘AON Community Art Award Exhibition,’ Leadenhall Building, London, UK.
2016 ‘The New Generation Show,’ Compass Gallery, Glasgow, UK.
2016 ‘The Glasgow School of Art Degree Show 2016,’ The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, UK.
2016 ‘Gilding the Lily,’ The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, UK.
2015 ‘Safe & Healthy,’ McLellan Galleries/ Grace and Clark Fyfe Gallery, Glasgow, UK.
2014 ‘Second Year Show,’ Grace and Clark Fyfe Gallery, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, UK.
2013 ‘City & Guilds Foundation Show,’ City & Guilds of London Art School, London, UK.
2012 ‘National Students’ Exhibition,’ Mall Galleries, London, UK.
Awards, Scholarships, Prizes & Residencies:
2024 ‘June Yuer Memorial Scholarship’
2024 ‘Martha Alf Foundation Scholarship’ for the artistic development of visual art students in Southern California.
2020 Artist in Residence at Sherborne Girls School, Sherborne, Dorset, UK.
2019 ‘PLOP Residency,’ 26 Holborn Viaduct, Holborn, London, UK.
2018 Artist in Residence at Wellington College, Crowthorne, Berkshire.
2017 ‘Aon Community Art Award of £5,000 for the Most Promising Artist.’
2016 ‘RSA: New Contemporaries’ Exhibition, Selected Artist, 2017.
2016 ‘The RGI Glasgow School of Art Graduate Award’ Exhibition, Selected Artist, 2016.
2016 ‘AON Community Art Award’ Exhibition, Selected Artist, 2016-17.
2016 ‘The James Nicol McBroom Memorial Prize,’ painting bequeathed to the Glasgow School of Art Archives.
2015 ‘The Richard Ford Award,’ Travel Scholarship to Museo Del Prado, Madrid, Spain.
2013 ‘Sir Roger de Grey Prize For Drawing.’
Commissions:
2014 Painting for Harper Macleod LLP, financial advisers of the Commonwealth Games 2014, Glasgow, UK.
Press:
Interview with Georgina Clapham, Rise Art, Tatty Martin, 20th April 2022.
SHOWstudio Dilara Findikoglu S/S Womenswear, September 2019.
VOGUE Runway, Spring 2020, Ready to Wear, London, September 2019, by Steff Yotka.
L’OFFICIEL Russia, ‘Debut Solo Shows of Georgina Clapham and Alexey Dubinsky,’ 23rd April 2018.
The Scottish Herald, "Gallery: Trio of Young Painters are ones to watch," Jan Patience, 24th March 2017.
The Skinny, "School of Fine Art,” Adam Benmakhlouf, 16th June, 2016.
The Scottish Herald, "Glasgow School of Art Degree Show 2016," Jan Patience, 18th June 2016.
The List, "One's to watch at this year's degree shows," Susan Mansfield, 20th May, 2016.
The Skinny, "Glasgow School of Art Degree Show 2016" Poster Image, May 2016.
The Herald, "Legal Firm's painting rises from the ashes to mark Glasgow Games," 3rd August, 2014.
Collections:
Gloves for Dilara Findikoglu, S/S 2020, ‘Fire Lives in the Death of Water.’
Royal Academy of Arts, Richard Ford Award, Travel Scholarship, Portfolio.
Publications:
‘Carnival to Catwalk: Global Reflections on Fancy Dress Costume,’ by Benjamin Wild, Bloomsbury, 2020.
‘Georgina Clapham: Mythologies and Metamorphoses,’ text by Lena Fadeeva, 2018.