Aurélie Meriel
Degree: BA Fine Art
University: Middlesex University
Graduation Year: 2023
New Blood Art Commentary
Aurélie Meriel is a multi-disciplinary artist in her final year of Fine Art at Middlesex University. Meriel’s abstract art centres around themes of gender politics and femininity. The surreal nature of her work captures the essence of female representation that cannot be confined by rigid gender boundaries. This is accentuated by her use of textile which crafts an intimate connection to her mother and grandmother, and ultimately brings a literal texture to her themes of motherhood and domesticity. The making process is a central part of Meriel’s art, notably experimentation, documentation, and performance.
Dr. Alexandra M. Kokoli, Programme Leader, BA Fine Art Associate Professor in Visual Culture at Middlesex University:
'Aurelie Meriel's interdisciplinary practice grapples with women's histories and the legacies of feminism, through staging encounters between the familiar and the unfamiliar.'
Artist Statement
Making is at the centre of my process. I often start by making an object. Then I start to play with performance, interacting with the work and making photographs or film. I like discovery, and the process of chance and surprise. The objects I make often become something else in performance or give me inspiration for paintings.
Working with textile brings me back to joyful moments in my childhood because my mother and grandmother sewed a lot. I have memories of the three of us with lots of fabric on the floor, making things, bonding the generations together.
Group Exhibitions
(2023) Within the Zeitgeist, Bow Arts, London, UK
(2022) Moment in the Ether, Bow Arts, London, UK
(2022) Confluent d'Art, Abbaye de Bernay, France
(2021) Neither Here Nor There, Islington Arts Factory, London, UK