Natalie Chapman
Degree: BA Fine Art
University: Carmarthen School of Art
Graduation Year: 2017
New Blood Art Commentary
Natalie Chapman’s women hold their ground. There’s a kind of casual boldness to them - intentional, but never performative. They know where they are. They’ve survived it, or shaped it, or both.
The colour is loud - deliberately so. Not for effect, but for insulation. Pattern and gesture doing what the body can’t. These works don’t behave. They don’t try to please. They’re not tidy, not deferential.
And still, there’s tenderness. A chipped mug. A hand resting. A knowing look. Shifting power. Girls with nowhere soft to land who learned to land in themselves.
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2021 Notable Achievements
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Artist Statement
My history, my past and my present: I paint portraits that engage with identity and issues based around dysfunctional relationships and social documentary. I focus on spontaneous snapshot-compositions, saturated colour spaces, and incidental objects in order to set a scene of everyday life. I want my work to feel edgy and to seduce the viewer into contemplating ambiguous tension, a sense of emptiness, boredom and anxiety. These works are on large canvases to create presence and intensify personal stories using gritty expression and garish colour. I want to create images about human relationships that are both dysfunctional and tender.
Solo Exhibitions
(2021) All the things I could have been, MOMA, Wales
(2020) Heads, canfas, cardigan
(2019) Love you mum, The volcano, Swansea
(2019) Love you mum, The Coach House, St Dogmaels
(2019) Love you mum, Canfas, Cardigan
Group Exhibitions
(2022) Summer show, MOMA wales, Machynlleth
(2022) AAF Hampstead, Affordable art fair, London
(2022) Fresh, Fresh art fair, Ascot
(2022) Edinburgh EAF, Edinburgh Art fair, Edinburgh
(2022) Belief, behaviour and belonging, Gallery Gwyn, Wales
(2019) LAG, Tabernacle, Aberaeron
(2019) Summer open, Oriel cric, Crickhowell
(2018) Summer open, Oriel crick, Crickhowell
(2018) A Welsh story, The Coach House, St Dogmaels
(2017) moment in time, norwegian church, cardiff
(2017) summer open, MOMA, Machynlleth
(2015) moment in time, botanical gardens, wales
Competitions, Prizes & Awards
(2018) Oriel crick
(2019) MOMA summer show
(2017) Listed in the Guardian list of artists to look out for
(2021) Long listed for the Ruth Borchard Self portrait award
(2022) Work bought as part of the National Library of Wales collection
(2022) Shortlisted for Australian Out of the mist short film award
