Lot 24 - Jemima Sara - Showering in Martini

Ink, watercolour, and acrylic on paper
2025
A6 (10x15cm)
Original Artwork
Signed on Verso
Curated by Mercedes Lucy

About
Jemima Sara (b.1997) merges diaristic texts with the figurative - incorporating everyday life and freedom of expression into her work. Jemima’s formal training in BA Puppetry: Performance & Design at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (graduating in 2018) followed by a MA in Fine Art: Drawing at Camberwell (graduating in 2021) has enabled her work to embody the interplay between text, figurative paintings and performative installations.

In November 2024, Jemima Sara was recognised as a finalist for the Ingram Prize, the drawings and paintings Jemima creates are journal-like entries, they show the daily tumultuous experience of the mundane existence. The work begins with unfiltered intrusive thoughts, the figures of women and fragmented words unravel the layers of her inner dialogue. Each work is a cathartic personal exploration, inviting audiences to decode the intricate layers of meaning embedded within.

On her canvases and within her drawings, figures or women tend to appear with martini glasses. Jemima odes these figures to be her ‘alter egos’ or ‘martini ladies’. When Jemima first started drawing she would use these ‘martini ladies’ as her voice.

The naked ladies vulnerably get everything out on the table, physically and emotionally, and the martini glass - well, in my experience with the right attitude and martini glass you could do anything.

Every work is like a secret code, inside joke or unfiltered diary entry waiting to be deciphered. She has turned work-in-progress into a genre. The works oscillate between bold declarations and intimate reflections.

Education
2020/21
MA Fine Art: Drawing - Camberwell College, University of the Arts London

2015/18
BA Puppetry: Design and Performance - Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London

Solo Exhibitions
2024
SEE WHAT LOVE, St George's Church, UK

2023
The Toilet, Liminal Gallery - The Cupboard, Margate, UK

2022
I'VE LOST MY FAITH IN THIS CRAP, CRATE Gallery, Margate, UK

2021
My mind is a toilet, CRATE Gallery, Margate, UK

2020
165 Draycott Avenue, London, UK
Rest, Miller Harris, Hong Kong

2019
Anxiety & Butterfly, Old Brompton Road, London, UK
Recovery, Miller Harris Canary Wharf, London, UK

2017
Martini Ladies, The Square Gallery, London, UK

Group Exhibitions
2024
Small is Beautiful XLII, Flowers Gallery, London, UK
Ingram Prize Exhibition, Unit 1 Gallery, London, UK
Salon II, Liminal Gallery, Margate, UK

2023
Salon, Liminal Gallery, Margate, UK
Because - reprise, Dorothy Circus Gallery, London, UK
Because, Dorothy Circus Gallery, Rome, IT

2022
Catalogue, F&deO Gallery, Madrid, Spain
Green Grads, LDF Samsung, London, UK
The Crossover Project x Edward Bulmer, LDF, London, UK
The Crossover Project, Royal Exchange, London, UK
ADONIS, The Margate School, Margate, UK

2021
It's a Wrap, Laurent Delaye Gallery, Ramsgate, UK
Camberwell MA Fine Art Graduate Showcase x South London Gallery, London, UK
SHIJ-ZY, Camberwell, London, UK
Acedia, Purslane Gallery, UK
The Postal Project, Camberwell, London, UK

Awards
2024
Ingram Prize Finalist

2023
Print Club London Artist in Residence

2021-2022
Creative Business Accelerator with Google for Startups x UAL

Statement about AOAP Submitted Artwork
The postcard paintings: 'She's Magnificent', Showering' and 'Do not run from fear' explore the endless conflicted conscious yet subconscious monologue where I am constantly thinking of people I love, admire, lust for, despise, look up to, hate, am jealous of or who I am comparing myself to. The figures painted delve into the daily tumultuous experience of the mundane existence - but with martinis. I used a mixture of watercolour, acrylic, and ink to bring layers to the surface inviting the viewer to decode the intricate layers of meaning embedded within - what are they 'showering' in? who is the magnificent one? 'why do we run from fear?'. Perhaps I wish to burden the viewer with my thoughts or those are these important questions I need the answer to?