Series 6: Art on a Postcard for International Women's Day 2021

In today’s episode Rosa Torr chats with Jane Shea and Julia Sheehan who both coordinated the Hepatitis C Trust’s women’s prison team. Having met first as inmates and reconnected in the Hep C Trust’s offices, the pair found an opportunity to reach women in prisons and encourage an environment where women felt free to talk, come forward and get tested.

Our prisons are full of women who should not be incarcerated but who are in need of help and support through other means. Women in vulnerable positions are less likely to come forward and ask for help for fear of the implications and increased exposure. By addressing women’s needs, some woman can avoid getting caught up in the criminal justice system and have their problems addressed in a more appropriate setting. Women with addiction issues are much more likely to have hepatitis C. The prevalence of hepatitis C among women in prison is higher than in the male prison cohort. Getting tested and treated is a crucial step in rehabilitating women’s health and lives. Jane and Julia discuss their most recent project; a magazine called ‘i am’ provides a cathartic outlet for women who are incarcerated.

The Art on a Postcard Auction for International Women's Day is raising money for The Women's Prison Team at The Hepatitis C Trust to support their important work.

Bidding starts at £50

25 Feb – 11 March 2021

In today’s episode Rosa Torr chats with Ayobola Kekere-Ekun who is participating in the auction with some beautiful works sent all the way from Nigeria where she lives and works. In the episode we chat about Ayobola’s practice and how she explores themes of gender, power and the human condition through distinctive aesthetics and mediums. 

Ayobola Kekere-Ekun (b. 1993) is a contemporary visual artist. She was born in Lagos, Nigeria. Her B.A. and M.A. in Visual arts were received from the Department of Creative Arts, University of Lagos; where she majored in Graphic Design. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Art and Design at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Ayobola is also a Lecturer at the Department of Creative Arts, University of Lagos.

Ayobola’s work often explores subjects connected to gender, mythology, power and the human condition in a multi-layered way; creating work through a labour-intensive process. Ayobola works predominantly with a technique known as quilling, in which strips of paper are individually shaped to create forms.

Ayobola has generously donated two lots to our Art on a Postcard Auction for International Women's Day. View lots 129 & 130 here.

In today’s episode Rosa Torr chats to Yui Kugimiya about her art practise, minimalist aesthetics and exploration into oil paint animation.

Yui Kugimiya (born 1981, Tokyo) has been working from her base in Brooklyn since graduating from Yale University in 2007. Yui has has exhibited within the US, Mexico and Europe as well as Japan. A multidisciplinary artist she uses drawings, etching, and paintings as well as animation to explore the internal world of imagination and nothingness in order to transport the viewer to these places.​ ​‘Movement’ and ‘stillness’ are two conflicting elements which coexist in Kugimiya’s paintings and we are delighted to include her in our upcoming auction.

Yui has generously donated four lots to our Art on a Postcard Auction for International Women's Day. View lots 287-290 here.

In today’s episode Rosa Torr chats with Sikelela Owen, or Ziggy as she often goes by, about new motherhood, themes of intimacy in her work and her artistic practice.

Sikelela Owen’s subjects are images of family and friends, of domestic life, of moments of rest and relaxation. Her dedication to the theme of intimacy lends her paintings a sense of strength, as if through searching for the precious in the everyday, Sikelela traces the shape of something subtly empowering. This is work in which a domestic muse is used to provoke an identification not with the image, but with the special sense of community and the family ties that the paintings imply. ​She holds a PG Diploma from the Royal Academy Schools and her work was featured in 2015 Thames and Hudson publication ‘100 Painters of Tomorrow’. Owen has exhibited nationally and internationally.

Sikelela has generously donated 4 artworks to our Art on a Postcard Auction for International Women's Day. View lots 397-400 here.

In this episode Rosa Torr talks with Antonia Showering about the universal potential of telling personal stories through art, artistic process, special Swiss mountains and good music.

Antonia Showering is known for her richly layered depictions of family members in landscape settings, deployed in warm, velvety washes of red, orange and green. Antonia is interested in how paint has the ability to manipulate or alter past experiences. Her works capture the ephemeral nature of memory, using canvas or paper as a portal into these private moments. Similar to the act of story-telling some parts are exaggerated, forgotten and other parts totally invented. ​Antonia has been featured in dozens of group exhibitions at the Stephen Friedman Gallery, South London Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, Timothy Taylor and more. She continues to make waves as one of Britain’s most exciting artists and last year Antonia’s first solo show at White Cube GALLERY was a major success.

Antonia has generously donated 2 artworks to our Art on a Postcard Auction for International Women's Day. View lots 227 & 228 here.

Want to learn more about Antonia? Watch the visit we made to her studio here.

In this final episode of the International Women’s Day auction series Rosa talks with Anne Desmet RA about her work and practice as one of Britain’s leading printmakers. They talk about becoming a Royal Academician, the history of wood engraving and Anne’s love of Italian architecture.

Anne Desmet was born in Liverpool, UK, in 1964.​ She has taught wood engraving widely, including at the RA Schools, British Museum and Middlesex University. In 2011, Anne was elected a member of the ​Royal Academy of Arts​ and is only the third wood engraver ever elected to the RA in its entire history. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE) and the Society of Wood Engravers (SWE). In 2018, she was elected an Honorary Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford. She is the author of many books on the topic of print making and retrospectives and exhibitions of her work have toured the UK.

Anne has generously donated lots 244-247 to our auction which you can view here.