Celia Hempton

Place: Stroud

Born: 1981

Biography:

Celia Hempton is a British artist based in London and has exhibited internationally across Europe, Asia and North and South America. She primarily works as a painter but also explores different media such as sound and performance. Her primary artistic interest lies in feelings of discomfort and confronting those feelings. Hempton studied Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art from 2000 to 2003, where she was also part of the band I Love Lucy. She then moved to London and completed her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art from 2005 to 2007. Hempton is most famous for her series 'Chat Random' (2014–ongoing), which consists of images of male genitalia found through the website Chatrandom.com. She cycles through different live images of people she finds online using her laptop and then begins to paint, often using bright artificial colours. The works were first exhibited in 2014 and titled with the subject's country and the date she encountered them. Hempton sees this series as subverting the male gaze and uses her position as a woman to confront the taboo of painting a penis. In addition to her paintings, Hempton has also collaborated with her brother Sam Hempton on a sound piece in 2014.