Lisa Naylor

Lisa studied Art and Design at Bradford College, completing her degree in 2010. She is an artist with conviction, with a social conscience, facing hard truths and lies. In this, her first solo exhibition at Water Street Gallery, social themes underpin these painterly works with concepts of freedom and domination, entrapment and violation. ‘Objects that appear in my work represent the idea of a subject being made to perform, of being controlled, in a way not natural to them’

Personified by animal imagery namely the deer, fox, horse, hare , birds, and a dreamlike encounter of a unicorn and a white swan. All seem to be moving from or towards instinctive fight or flight, frequently bound within their particular landscapes and forms.

An intriguing use of pyrography (drawing through burning) adds further substance to images, pinning them in time and space. Expressive colour and mark making gives Lisa freedom from too much early decision making, allowing the works to evolve before constructing the form and content.‘I am really interested in the journey from abstraction and realism, and back again’