Interview Venetia Berry

Championed by Alex Eagle
The Wick - By Venetia Berry
Above  By Venetia Berry
ONES TO
WATCH
ONES TO
WATCH
The Wick - Venetia Berry. Photography: Tara Juno Rowse
Above  Venetia Berry. Photography: Tara Juno Rowse
Interview
Venetia Berry and Alex Eagle
15 November 2023
Interview
Venetia Berry and Alex Eagle
15 November 2023
The multidisciplinary creative director Alex Eagle has a keen eye for spotting and nurturing talent. She champions emerging artists in her Soho retail temple, Alex Eagle Studio, and The Store X, an international platform for ideas and culture, where they rub shoulders with the pioneers of the creative world.

One such artist is Venetia Berry, who pulls off the rare feat of instilling figurative painting with a new dynamism but also a sense of serenity. Eagle exhibited Berry’s work in her Lexington Street store in 2022 and spotlights her again for The Wick this week, ahead of the artist’s solo show at One Room Gallery in Shoreditch.
Says Eagle: “Venetia has an original and unique style, which is consistent yet always evolving. She uses a lot of beautiful blues and pinks and her line feels so free and organic. I love the way she can apply her aesthetic onto different mediums, like shirts and vases, and she isn’t precious about it.”

In Dreamscapes, Berry’s upcoming exhibition at One Room Gallery, the painted female form finds its way onto ceramics, as well as canvases and paper.

Eagle continues: “I think there is something free about her figures but they are also contained and calm. I love the fact she has found her craft and stuck to it, but each of her shows feels ever evolving and fresh.”

Berry often draws from art history, particularly the work of Henri Matisse, Helen Frankenthaler and the Fauves. For Dreamscapes, however, a trip to Italy proved influential. “I have taken inspiration from the classical forms that I saw in Rome last year, as well as from the timeless bathing scenes that we can see throughout art history. My aim is to create a world that feels familiar but also unearthly and dreamlike. I love the idea of this timeless environment, with females bathing in the nude, relaxed and content in each other’s company.”

You can revel in Berry’s Dreamscapes at One Room Gallery on Shoreditch’s French Place, E1, from 30 November to 5 December.

About the champion

The Wick - Photography: William Grundy

Alex is a Creative Director working across mediums of design, space, fashion, art and furniture. She is driven by a fascination in timeless objects and wardrobe staples that transcend seasons and trends, with a focus on British made, quality design and fabrics.

“I love the fact Venetia has found her craft and stuck to it, but each of her shows feels ever evolving and fresh.”

Place of Birth

London, UK

Education

The Royal Drawing School in Shoreditch, London, 2015-16
Leith School of Art, Edinburgh, 2012-14
Charles H Cecil Studios, Florence, 2012

Awards, Accolades

Collaboration with With Nothing Underneath, 2023
Exhibited at Alex Eagle Studio, London, 2022
Co Founder of Sol Creative Retreats
Villa Lena Artist Residency, 2021

Current exhibitions

‘Dreamscapes’, a solo exhibition at One Room Gallery, London, E16JB, 30 November – 5 December 2023.
Also currently showing at Gallery 13 in Windsor

Spiritual guides, Mentors

Kate Bryan, Georgia Spray, Alex Eagle, Helen Frankenthaler and Matisse

Advice

Keep doing what you are passionate about because when you stop being genuine it can be obvious


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