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Her paintings engage in an incessant, ever-evolving reckoning with the medium itself—its materiality and history, its complex relationship with figuration and abstraction, the points where it gives way and the points where it resists. The way she layers marks and pigments, unearthing buried deposits of time and space, has an archaeological quality, drawing on ways of seeing that are both long established and highly contemporary (not least those introduced by new technologies). With her bold play of textures, surfaces, and scales, these paintings insist on their own physicality, on the impossibility of reducing them to mere images.
M
Mary Ramsden
Mary Ramsden was born in 1984 in North Yorkshire, where she still lives and works today. She studied at the Royal Academy in London, the Edinburgh College of Art, and the Leith School of Art in Edinburgh. Mary Ramsden is internationally known for her abstract compositions that radiate spontaneity and emotional depth. Her paintings are renowned for combining intensity with introspection, inviting the viewer to engage with the complex aspects of perception and emotion.
Her artworks often feature bold brushstrokes, vibrant colours, and layered textures, creating a dynamic interplay between form and space.
MARY RAMSDEN „BLEACHED BLONDE”, 2021
Oil on canvas | Courtesy of gallery Wentrup
Mary Ramsden is internationally known for her abstract compositions that radiate spontaneity. Her paintings are characterized by bold brushstrokes, vibrant colours, and layered textures, creating a dynamic interplay between form and space.
MARY RAMSDEN „ORATOR”, 2022
Oil on panel | Courtesy of gallery Wentrup
During the lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, the artist began creating abstract portraits of her friends and family as a way of staying close to them. For this, Mary Ramsden used a variety of materials, which she painted and then combined in the tradition of assemblage and collage. The act of painting on different materials fascinated her so much that she continued this practice, as seen in the work Orator.
Exhibitions
The artist has had solo exhibitions at the Aspen Art Museum, USA | Atticsalt Gallery, Edinburgh, GB | Wentrup, Berlin, DE | Pilar Corrias, London, GB. She has been part of group exhibitions at institutions such as Tate Britain, London, GB | Sid Motion Gallery, London, GB | The Drawing Biennial 2019, London, GB | The Drawing Room, London, GB | Victoria Miro, London, GB | Saatchi Gallery, London, GB.
Collections
Mary Ramsden's works are held in prominent international collections: Fiorucci Art Trust, London, GB | Fondation Bredin Prat, Paris, FR | The George Economou Collection, Athens, GR | Government Art Collection, London, GB | The Hiscox Collection, London, GB | Igal Ahouvi Collection, Tel Aviv, IS | Hort Family Collection, New York, US | Longlati Foundation, Hong Kong, CN | Margulies Collection, Miami, US | Perez Art Museum, Miami, US | Tate Modern, London, GB | Zabludowicz Collection, London, GB.