2 New Artists: Sam Jane Hunt and more

Sam Jane Hunt: Working in the art of mischief, Sam Jane Hunt depicts figures ‘caught in the act’. A self-taught figurative painter, her work demonstrates a highly developed painterly voice filled with wit, verve, and humour. Figures dare you to look at them, then equally point the blame elsewhere. But we’re nosy, so all we can do is smile back with an appreciative touché at the works’ gumption. Mixing the humanity of Alice Neel’s portraits, with the playful teasing of Paula Rego’s characters, Hunt deftly uses colour blocking to feed her narrative-filled scenes. Currently living between the UK and France, Hubt and has exhibited her work in Paris, London and Detroit.

Magdelena Gluszak-Holeksa's deeply personal work speculates on the experience of memory, time, and the uncertainty of navigating one’s movement in the world. Her prismatic works spindle and crack with holographic colour; sceneries are abstracted, almost mimicking the hidden depths of a geode crystal. Gluszak-Holeksa works with the edges of shapes that merely suggest form – it is part of her experimentation in modelling sensory experiences before our formal reasoning starts to take over. As one work is titled, ‘My burden is light’, Gluszak-Holeksa truly challenges light itself to make shards of colour that resonate in each piece. Glowing mysteriously with mint, turquoise and cool blues, her work gestures towards a subconscious wisdom we don’t always realise is at work.

Men Say That I'm Intense Or I'm Insane by Sam Jane Hunt