Elinor Stanley studied at the Royal Academy Schools (2019-2023). Recent exhibitions include: “John Moores Painting Prize” (2023),The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; “RA Schools Show 2023” (2023), Royal Academy of Arts, London and “Day by Day, Good Day” (2023), Union Pacific, London.
Stanley uses painting to amplify and heighten experience; the figurative focus of a painting shifts as a confused eye might. Currents of tenderness, cruelty, humour and shame run through the work alongside a painterly appetite for colour and material and what those can make manifest. These paintings are big, emotional reclining nudes, and Stanley pursues and plays with the embarrassment surrounding this genre.