In 2011, DegreeArt hosted the ambitious and bold solo show of then recent graduate Helen Gørrill entitled 'Deicide'. The exhibition explored female submissiveness and those who promote the inferiority of women.
In August 2018, Helen exposed the Tate Museum’s gender disparity practices in its female artists’ collections in The Guardian. Now in 2020, it is with immense pride that we can share with you the launch of now Dr Helen Gørrill's debut book 'Women Can't Paint' published by Bloomsbury, the culmination of her PHD, over a decade of research and personal experience of the art world.
Helen, who exhibited with DegreeArt and Contemporary Collective at Pulse Miami Art Fair this past December, was singled out by the Architectural Digest, in their review of Miami Basel Art Week for her painting 'Cardi Queen B', will be holding a book signing and exhibition at the Bankside Hotel on Thursday June 18th 6 - 8:30pm.
“Written with infectious zeal, Women Can’t Paint is a resounding riposte to those scholars, artists, curators, collectors and institutions who yet attempt to hide their chauvinism behind the veneer of ‘quality’”
- Marsha Meskimmon, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History, Loughborough University, UK
Publishing shortly before International Women’s Day 2020, Women Can’t Paint is proof of how far we still have to go to achieve gender equality in the artistic sphere, but an equally powerful manifesto on how to achieve it.
About the Author & Artist:
Helen Gørrill’s collages and paintings explore ideas about time, history and reality; using contemporary imagery that juxtaposes with the Old Masters she sets out to reappropriate.
Her new artwork focuses on vandalising old masters and reviving art historical portraits through photo bombing and incorporating elements from contemporary sub-cultures, and often incorporates media such as lipstick, eyeliner and human hair. Within this context, the striking images hover between the 17thcentury and today’s climate of uncertainty; the deliberately defaced portraits by old masters refuse to become the passive objects they once were.
Helen Gørrill's collaged and painted portraits have been commissioned from prestigious clients such as the new Bankside Hotel adj. Tate Modern in London. Helen Gorrill was awarded a Doctorate in contemporary British Painting in 2017, co-supervised by the Royal College of Art.
For more information on the artist, please contact Isobel Beauchamp Isobel@DegreeArt.com / 07708 251 787
