Susan Moxley: The North Wall

These powerful paintings are the work of the versatile Oxford artist Susan Moxley, and came out of her need for a change of direction and a new challenge.

The exhibition began with just one portrait then gradually evolved through conversations with her sitters as she began to realise their stories were as diverse as their faces.

In placing the portraits together as she has, Susan is asking the viewer to look past the group and see the individual, seeking out her subjects’ identity, experiences and relationships, which are the unseen elements which inform a portrait.

Black-and-white oils on canvas was her chosen medium as she sought to prevent a social hierarchy creeping into the collection. By turning her back on a full range of colours, Susan feels each portrait is equal to the others. The effect is stunning and thought provoking.

Halfway through painting these portraits Susan was diagnosed with breast cancer and she was compelled to incorporate this life-changing experience into a new body of work. This is why you will find a series of bold, graphic, unemotional yet sensual prints hanging alongside the portraits, which tell her story.

When she discovered that one in nine women in Britain suffers from breast cancer she realised that statistically ten of the women she painted have experienced this disease. Hence her six collagraph prints entitled One in Nine. Her aim is to show that as with the Venus de Milo, the female figure can still radiate a powerful beauty despite its missing parts. These pictures are contrasted with a series of torso drawings that follow the iconic female forms repeated throughout art history.

This extraordinary show has taken Susan a year to complete, during that time she has battled with cancer and come to know more about the complex lives of the women who sat for her. Susan Moxley: The Female Form – Celebrating Women continues at the North Wall until March 13. It deserves a wide audience.