Celia Hempton (born

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...

, England) is a British artist based in London and has exhibited internationally across Europe, Asia and North and South America. Hempton is primarily a painter but works across different medias including sound and performance. Her primary artistic interest is feelings of discomfort and confronting those feelings. In 2016, Hempton was included in Vitamin P3 as one of 'tomorrow's artists'.

Education

Hempton studied Fine Art at

Glasgow School of Art The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; gd, Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, and ...

from 2000 to 2003 where she also played in a band called I Love Lucy. Hempton then moved to London and completed her MA in Painting at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It of ...

from 2005 to 2007.

Work

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 the different live images of people she finds online using her laptop 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. The piece was included in

Omar Kholeif Omar Kholeif is an Egyptian-born artist, curator, writer and editor. Kholeif's curatorial practice focuses on art that intersects with the internet, as well as works of art from emerging geographic territories that have yet to be seen in the mainstr ...

's exhibition 'Electronic Superhighway (2016-1966) at the

Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the f ...

. Her paintings vary in size, sometimes mimicking a mobile or laptop screen, other times taking up a large scale. In 2014 Hempton collaborated with her brother Sam Hempton to create a sound piece, which was made after a few days spent on the Volcano island of Stromboli.

Awards

Civitella Ranieri Foundation The Civitella Ranieri Foundation is an American artists’ community located at a 15th-century castle in the Umbria region of Italy. The Foundation provides four sessions of six-week long unstructured residencies every year to visual artists, ...

residency, Umbria, Italy, 2014 * Sainsbury Scholarship in Painting,

The British School at Rome The British School at Rome (BSR) is an interdisciplinary research centre supporting the arts, humanities and architecture. History The British School at Rome (BSR) was established in 1901 and granted a UK Royal Charter in 1912. Its mission is " ...

, Italy, 2008 -2010 * Neville Burston Memorial Award, Royal College of Art, London, UK, 2007

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hempton, Celia 1981 births Living people Net.artists Alumni of the Glasgow School of Art Alumni of the Royal College of Art 21st-century British painters People from Stroud British women painters 21st-century British women artists British contemporary artists