Featured Artist Jo Hummel

The featured artist this week is Jo Hummel

Jo Hummel is a multi-disciplinary artist based in the Isle of the Wight. Hummel has exhibited worldwide over the last decade, in Cape Town, Venice, Barcelona, as well as in the UK – at the Royal Academy, and Saatchi Gallery. Her work experiments with space, form, and colour; combining a multitude of conceptual interests in these vibrant yet minimalist compositions. 

Viewing her work as a form of self-research, Hummel’s pieces serve as a projection of her intimate self, as well as an internalisation of the greater natural landscape. Her use of colour is reactionary and emotionally charged, and her proximity to the ocean defines her meditative and ritual creative process. Her work is an amalgamation of painting and collage with a specific focus on the use of paper. She values the sincerity of the medium as it exposes perceived flaws, is mutable and perfect for layering. Coming from a background in digital arts Hummel views this experimentation with paper as a type of ‘editing.’ In addition, her use of the material reflects her desire to forage from her domestic setting and local environment.

Ultimately Hummel’s work is transcendent, it simultaneously grounds people and allows them to escape. This is embodied by the materiality of her work and how it serves as a passage into her own consciousness, but also as a portal to the wider world.