Artist statement
Linda Wallis, based in Nottingham, takes inspiration from the everyday and ordinary. With a love of form and a sense of the bizarre, her drawings teeter between the plausible and the ridiculous; a strange array of objects and shapes that although indecipherable, appear to depict something tangible. The artist diverged from painting her customary city and townscapes to focus on what she believes are manifestations of her unconscious. By reappropriating pattern, form, shape, and texture from ordinary things, she brings to life an eccentric array of mischievous constructions on paper.
Wallis states, “As an artist I like to use a range of different mediums, styles and approaches to suit various ongoing projects. My earliest work reveals an interest in representation, context and plausibility. These oil paintings provide the background to my current work and depict the housing estate where I grew up. By bringing my early emotional experiences into the process, I have unearthed an unusual and surreal narrative. More recently my focus has shifted to the area in and around where I now live. My paintings are not typical views of Nottingham. They are of the back streets, unloved spaces where people come and go about their daily routines. I want to make these places special, to make people notice the unnoticeable and see something different in their environment.”
Moving away from painting temporarily, in 2017 Wallis began working on a series of coloured pencil drawings influenced mostly by objects and mini environments. In removing environmental context, forms are isolated, appearing more as sculptural pieces. Landscapes are reduced to basic organic shapes which are clustered and arranged to suggest dreamlike scenes.
Linda Wallis has participated in numerous exhibitions in London, New York and Berlin.
Selected Exhibitions
2023 ‘Athens Art Fair’ Platforms Projects, Athens
2023 ‘Knowle Hill’ The Split Gallery, London
2022 ‘Paperworks III’ NBB Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2022 ‘Angels with Dirty Faces’ Ojiri Gallery, London, UK
2022 ‘Instagram Live’ 19 Karen Contemporary Artspace, Queensland, Australia
2022 ‘Inside Draughtswomen’ Feinkunst Kruger, Hamburg, Germany
2022 ‘Frequencies (for healing)’ Confer-Karnac Artspace, London, UK
2021 ‘Thingness’ Underdonk, New York, US
2021 ‘Through the Mirage’ Fitzrovia Gallery, London, UK
2021 ‘Heads Full of Poetry’ Simard Bilodeau Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA, US
2021 ‘Begin Again’ Binder Projects, Memphis, TN, US
2019 ‘Decade’, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, UK
2019 Open Studios, Notts, UK
2019 About Six, Carrington Festival, Nottingham, UK
2019 Festival of Small Works, Sherwood, Nottingham, UK
2018 Festival of Small Works, Sherwood, Nottingham, UK
2016 Sherwood Festival, Nottingham, UK
2016 Doctor’s Orders, Public House, Nottingham, UK
2015 Sherwood Festival, Nottingham, UK
Juried exhibitions
2021 Tarpey Gallery Open, Castle Donington, Leicestershire, UK
2015-2020 Harley Gallery Open, Nottinghamshire, UK
Virtual exhibitions
2023 ‘In Bloom’ Group Exhibition, Victoria Law Projects
2023 The Invisible Clue, Willow Art Space, UK
2021 The Holy Art, Blast
2020 Showhouse JayJay
2020 Binder Projects ‘House Party’
Publications
2023 Moth Belly Magazine, curated by Calamity Fair
