artist statement

CV

Lauren Houghton
Bath, South West of England
laureneh00@gmail.com

Education

2018 – Present Bath School of Art and Design

Exhibitions

2021 - 'To Continue', OXO Bargehouse, London, UK

2021 - Degree Show, Locksbrook Road, Bath, UK

2020 – Online group exhibition, ‘Stay at Home’, Bath, UK

2019 - Group Exhibition, The Roper Gallery, Bath UK

2018 – Group exhibition, Bishop Luffa School, Chichester, UK

2018 – Group exhibition, Arundel Museum, Arundel, UK

Lauren Houghton’s practice seeks to incorporate a consistent questioning of the language of painting to achieve breaking the boundaries of painting as a discipline. This is shown through the playful approach she uses towards the materials and issues of paint, using processes such as screen-print to develop ideas around significant elements such as the picture plane: through layering image and text. Through the additional layers within her work, she uses objects such as post it notes or blobs of paint onto the canvas, this highlights the status of literalness of her paintings, objectifying them to sit on the border of painting and sculpture. Her paintings usually depict a realistic style to create an illusion and false reality for the viewer, however, she reveals the illusion of the realistic style with her playful techniques such as revealing the structure of the painting or displaying the palette used to create the subject on the same surface. The choice of subject derives from not knowing what her subject is, there is an interest in the irony of the laborious task of realistically painting something insignificant, which is furthered by then revealing the whole process of it. Her content forms a diary-like documentation of the day to day mundanity and the genesis of the work, which creates a reoccurring cyclical process. These approaches towards the language of painting stem from influences such as Laura Owens or Angela de la Cruz.