Lot 443 - Bex Massey - Queen

About 
Bex Massey’s work examines the role of painting and the language of display in the face of popular culture.  She amalgamates simulacra and allegory to investigate notions of ‘worth’ via motifs and tones extracted from her childhood.  Massey’s previous works and exhibitions have engaged the codes and history of queer culture, along with markers of selfhood and Northern identity. Recent works have become visually softer, more sedate and uncomfortable as the unease and ‘value’ in this series is created via the relationships between the minimal conflations.  

The image pairings within these paintings encourage allusion to female bodies, building an underlying sexual tension imbued by the artist into quotidian objects. Compositionally the couplet mirror each other and their visceral epicentres form a visual echo.  This is further extended by an implied auditory element as the scenes contain the potential of noise, whether it is the moment a cat yawns or fizzy drink explodes – force in one image is released in its partner.  

These climactically coupled, female laden, tension imbued depictions are a nod to societies persistently binary notions of gender and therein the habitual reminder that outside the male gaze, Female + Female = Incorrect.  Masseys recent fertility journey with her partner has brought this into sharp focus, and this process is alluded to in the titles of canvas which are named after the sperm donors they have considered. This additional layer encourages the work to be viewed via a reproductive lens. 

Education 
2012-2013:  MA Fine Art.  Merit.  Chelsea School of Art, London.  
2004-2007:  Ba Hons Fine Art.  2:1. The School or Art, Architecture and Design, London. 
2025: Just Desserts, Seventeen, London, UK 

 Solo Exhibitions 
2024 
My deuce, My double,  GERTRUDE x Seventeen, London, UK 

2022 
The truth is out there,  Roman Road, London, UK  

2020 
We didn’t start the fire,  VOLT Eastbourne, UK  

2018 
ÀhhÁÀhhÁ, SLUGTOWN, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK 

 2017 
ÀhhÁ, Arebyte LASER, London, UK 

Group Exhibitions 
2024 
Strange Days: Surrealist Gaze, Cross Lane Projects, Cumbria, UK 
Landscape of the Gods, Vestry street, London, UK  

2023 
Landscape of the Gods, Cross Lane Projects, Cumbria, UK 
Catastrophic, Unit G, London, UK 

2022 
Elephant, Art Gazette, London, UK 
QUEER ART(ists) NOW, Space Station Sixty Five, London, UK 
Art on a Postcard summer Auction, The Bomb Factory, London, UK 
Instagram Live, 19 Karen, Queensland, Australia 
Northern Deviants, Unit G, London, UK 
Kunst the clown and friends, Gallery 46, London, UK 
Hyper Contemporary, Hasbrook Galleries, Milwaukee, USA 

2021 
Play and the post peak, The Factory, London 
Still Journey, The Columbia, London. 
The Big Show, Good Mother Gallery, San Francisco. 
Everywoman, Superchief Gallery, New York.  

2020 
Pop Now, Gallery 46, London. 
Body Politic, Susan Boutwell Gallery, Munich. 
She Performs, The Glass Tank, Oxford. 
Viewing Room, Harlesden High St, London. 

Awards 
2024 
Shortlisted ‘Macfarlanes Art Prize’. 
Shortlisted ‘Clyde & Co Art Prize’.  

2022 
Shortlisted ‘BEEP Painting Prize’.  

2021 
Winner ‘Repaint History Prize for Womxn Artists’.  

2016 
Shortlisted ‘Blooom Award, by Warsteiner’.  

2016 
Shortlisted ‘Taking Shape Prize’.  

2014 
Shortlisted  ‘Young Masters Art Prize’  

2014 
Shortlisted ‘The Signature Art Prize 

Gallery Representation 
Seventeen (London, UK)  

Statement about AOAP Submitted Artwork 
‘Queen’ is a hopeful bid for equality in light of International Women’s Day, as Queen Conch shells are seen as lucky.  They are a motif that I return to regularly in my work as they are also evocative of the female form.