Mary Stephenson (b. 1989) is the first of six artists exhibiting as part of the Incubator 22 programme. Born and raised in London, Stephenson is currently completing her MFA at the Royal Academy of Arts. Recent exhibitions include Contrappunto at Vin Vin Gallery, Vienna, Watch The Fire From The Shore at Linseed Project, Shanghai, and Paintings On, and, With Paper at Cob Gallery, London.

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This exhibition marks a radically new body of work for the artist. The sense of presence in her paintings, previously found in a recurring cast of characters, now emerges in subtler ways: inanimate objects, such as a set of swaddled cutlery or a drooping daffodil, take on the polyvalent resonances of personhood. Stephenson, who refers to these canvases as ‘pregnant spaces’, offers a mysterious, cinematic space for the unconscious to grow. Exploring this liminal place between physical and internal states with her distinctive, dark comedy, Stephenson’s highly saturated worlds move us from the familiar to the uncanny.

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co-curated by Angelica Jopling and Clara Galperin