Explorations 3: Seven Women Artists – Prudence Lovell

Prudence Lovell – Untitled (Connected III) (2015)

Here is another text panel from the Explorations 3: Seven Women Artists exhibition, which opens tomorrow, May 31:

Bio

Born in Framlingham, England, Prudence Lovell acquired her BFA degree from Kingston on Thames Art College, and then her MFA degree from Manchester Polytechnic, both in England. She lives and works in St Andrew, Jamaica.

About the Work

Prudence Lovell is an artist whose widely ranging concerns coalesce in a number of stunning drawings and collages. To paraphrase her own words, Lovell explores “the history and potential for allusion” found in art as well as the various “truths” found in documentary images. The ambiguities and disjunctions that occur due to the immediacy of photographic and other digital imagery and the seeming reliability of these images, often result in a rupture between perception and reality. Her most recent works, such as Untitled (Connected II) and Untitled (Conversation), are based on Skype conversations with her children, who are studying overseas, and address the moderated reality of online connections, in terms of the ambiguities of the simultaneous experiences and realities of proximity and distance.

O’Neil Lawrence, Exhibition Curator

Prudence Lovell – Pentimenti (1997)

About Women’s Art

“Women have always made art but until recently their efforts were rarely as widely seen, recognized and written about as menʼs and were therefore often quite invisible. It wasn’t until the 1970ʼs that this radically changed, and women began to be major players in the art world. Much of the discourse that followed this exposure aimed to discern whether there was an aesthetic that was characteristic of womenʼs art. But in the final instance, I believe that most works of art ─ even those taking the artistʼs gender and sexuality as their theme ─ come from a level of inner truth which generally transcends sexual difference.”

“In Jamaica, despite Edna Manley ushering in modern art, its first practitioners were mainly men but in recent decades this has evened out and I believe few would now claim that it is any disadvantage to be a woman artist in Jamaica except in surmounting the eternal challenge of work, motherhood and family life. That challenge I believe, often contributes to perspectives which differ and diverge from those of men and which sometimes reveal themselves through the adoption of specific content, in formal choices, the use of materials and working practices.”

Prudence Lovell

Prudence Lovell – Praxis (Parturition and Presentiment) (2003)