Natalie Chapman

Natalie Chapman is a Welsh figurative artist whose practice explores identity, class, relationships, memory and the lived experiences of people whose stories are often overlooked or misunderstood. Working primarily through painting, Chapman creates emotionally charged portraits and narrative scenes that examine the complexity of everyday life, drawing on personal experience, observation and social documentary.

Chapman’s work is deeply informed by her own working-class background and experiences of growing up in social housing. These experiences have shaped her interest in representation, belonging and the assumptions placed upon people by class and circumstance. Rather than presenting working-class life through stereotypes of deprivation, Chapman seeks to reveal its complexity, resilience, humour, vulnerability and humanity.

Her paintings often capture intimate, seemingly ordinary moments, using expressive colour, composition and gesture to explore what lies beneath the surface of her subjects. There is an intentional tension within the work: moments of tenderness can sit alongside discomfort, vulnerability alongside strength, and personal stories alongside wider social and political questions.

A significant strand of Chapman’s practice is her commitment to giving visibility to people and experiences that are frequently marginalised. Her work asks who gets represented, whose stories are heard, and how painting can challenge the assumptions and prejudices that surround class, identity and social circumstance.

Chapman has exhibited widely across Wales and the UK, including solo and group exhibitions at venues such as the Museum of Modern Art Wales (MOMA), Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Canfas Gallery, Elysium Gallery and the Norwegian Church Arts Centre. Her work has also been presented at major art fairs including Edinburgh Art Fair, Fresh Art Fair and the Affordable Art Fair.

Alongside her studio practice, Chapman has developed a strong curatorial and community-focused dimension to her work. She is interested in creating opportunities for artists and audiences to engage with challenging social themes and believes strongly in the ability of art to create connection, open conversations and make people feel seen.

Through her paintings, Chapman continues to explore the personal and political relationship between people and the circumstances in which they live, creating work that is direct, compassionate and unapologetically human.

Education

Carmarthen School of Art (2017)

Artist statement

My work is rooted in lived experience. I paint people, relationships and moments that sit somewhere between tenderness and discomfort, using portraiture as a way of exploring identity, memory, class and the complicated realities of human connection.

I am interested in the stories that exist beneath the surface of a person’s appearance — the things we carry, the relationships that shape us, and the experiences that are often left unspoken. My paintings draw on personal memory, observation and social documentary, creating figures and situations that can feel intimate, raw and psychologically charged. I often work from spontaneous, snapshot-like compositions, allowing awkwardness, tension and ambiguity to remain within the image rather than resolving everything into a neat narrative.

Colour and space are central to my practice. I use bold, expressive colour alongside a sense of visual unease to create paintings that are emotionally direct but open to interpretation. I want the viewer to recognise something familiar within the work, even when the specific story belongs to someone else.

My practice has increasingly become a way of questioning the structures and assumptions that determine whose stories are considered worthy of being seen. Growing up in social housing and experiencing the stigma and limitations attached to working-class life has profoundly influenced the way I understand representation and belonging. These experiences have made me particularly interested in voices that are overlooked, judged or pushed to the margins.

Painting allows me to challenge those assumptions. It gives space to people and experiences that are often reduced to stereotypes, statistics or silence. I am not interested in creating images of hardship simply for the sake of spectacle; instead, I want to explore resilience, complexity, humour, vulnerability and the strength it takes to navigate difficult circumstances.

At the heart of my work is a belief that art should be accessible, inclusive and capable of starting difficult conversations. I want my paintings to hold both the personal and the political — to tell individual stories while also asking wider questions about class, identity, relationships, opportunity and who gets to feel that they belong.

Ultimately, my work is about people: how we survive, how we love, how we hurt one another, how we remember, and how we continue to make ourselves visible.

Selected exhibitions

### 2026
**Breadline Britain: The Cymru Edition** — Solo Exhibition, Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales
19 April – 5 July 2026
**Light Loss Destruction Devotion** — Group Exhibition with Rory Chapman, Lola Rose Chapman & Harriet Chapman, Gateway Gallery, Shrewsbury
19 June – 17 July 2026
**Horses for Courses** — Art Drop ’26, Canfas, Cardigan, Wales
10 January – 28 February 2026
### 2025
**Art in the Bar: It’s a Class Act** — Elysium Gallery, Swansea, Wales
April – May 2025
**This Woman’s Work — International Women’s Day** — Canfas, Cardigan, Wales
8 March – 26 April 2025
*Curated by Natalie Chapman*
**The Other Art Fair** — London, UK
### 2023
**Unity** — Helm Gallery, Brighton, UK
**RBSA Portrait Prize** — Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Birmingham, UK
**Liberation** — Brighton, UK
**Cranogwen** — Canfas, Cardigan, Wales
**The Shop** — Seagull, Cardigan, Wales
**Edinburgh Art Fair (EAF)** — Edinburgh, Scotland
**Three** — Ivy House, Llandeilo, Wales
**Harrogate Art Fair** — Harrogate, UK
### 2022
**Belief, Behaviour and Belonging** — Gallery Gwyn, Wales
**Edinburgh Art Fair (EAF)** — Edinburgh, Scotland
**Fresh Art Fair** — Ascot, UK
**Affordable Art Fair** — Hampstead, London, UK
### 2021
**All the Things I Could Have Been** — Solo Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art Wales (MOMA), Machynlleth, Wales
### 2020
**Heads** — Canfas Gallery, Cardigan, Wales
### 2019
**Love You Mum** — The Volcano Theatre, Swansea, Wales
**Love You Mum** — The Coach House, St Dogmaels, Wales
**Love You Mum** — Canfas Gallery, Cardigan, Wales
**LAG** — Tabernacle, Aberaeron, Wales
**Summer Open** — Oriel Cric, Crickhowell, Wales
### 2018
**A Welsh Story** — The Coach House, St Dogmaels, Wales
**Summer Open** — Oriel Cric, Crickhowell, Wales
### 2017
**Moment in Time** — Norwegian Church Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales
**Summer Open** — Museum of Modern Art Wales (MOMA), Machynlleth, Wales
### 2015
**Moment in Time** — National Botanic Garden of Wales, Carmarthenshire, Wales