This exhibition brings together two artists, each carving out their own dialogue with the self, gender and identity.

Joline Kwakkenbos, a Dutch painter, explores themes of queer identity, femininity, and human experience through introspective self-portraits. The paintings serve as intimate windows into her inner world, where the boundaries of time, history, and identity blur. In these portraits, she inhabits multiple selves, presenting figures clothed in historical garments and embodying characters from different eras. Through this playful engagement with art history and historical symbolism, she examines the conventions of the female nude and the gaze, questioning gender norms and societal expectations. The presence of allegorical symbols—such as brushes, paper, and clothing—represent the newfound freedom and possibilities she experiences as an artist in Margate, a place that has sparked new inspiration for her. 

Elissa Cray, photographer and Director of TKE Studios, delves into the metamorphic nature of identity, exploring the intricate tensions between exposure and concealment through an autobiographical lens.  Using large format film photography, her creative process is deliberate and slow, capturing performative moments of vulnerability and transformation that draw on both the fear and the allure of wild places. The shape-shifting figures within the images depict a blurred boundary between presence and absence and suggest a fluidity that speaks to the complexity of gender and queerness.  

Joline Kwakkenbos and Elissa Cray create a unique conversation between the painted surface and the photographic frame, between self-exploration and the larger human condition. Their works intersect on themes of identity, memory, and time, culminating in an exhibition that powerfully reflects the complexities of contemporary life.

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