Rachel Stanley (b.1996, Epsom, based in Edinburgh, UK) is a painter whose practice speculates on the possibilities between abstraction and figuration. Taking reference from natural forms and the human body, the paintings perform a shifting of perspectives – looking across, over, under and through – in order to obscure and undo the landscape. Blending elements of internal and external worlds, often forming new ‘bodyscapes’, the works exist in a grey ‘between’ area, suggesting double meanings and requiring multiple visits. 

The works employ a playful consideration of materiality and surface, utilising burlap, calico and muslin in place of canvas, and painting in varying degrees of thickness – gently staining, thickly layering, and using gestural mark-making more akin to drawing. This is an intuitive and sensory process, whereby paintings reveal themselves over time.