SHAPESHIFTERS

ELISSA CRAY + JOLINE KWAKKENBOS

Curated by Dame Tracey Emin DBE

Open weekends from
3 November 2024 - 26 January 2025

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.

Enquires:

JOLINE KWAKKENBOS

  • Self-Portrait with a French Hat, 2024

    145 x 110 cm, oil on linen
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Self-Portrait with Romain, 2024

    155 x 70 cm, oil on linen
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Self-Portrait: The Watch, 2024

    190 x 145 cm, oil on linen
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Self-Portrait with Teahouse Studio, 2024

    70 x 50 cm, oil on linen
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Self-Portrait with the Child, 2024

    110 x 65 cm, oil on linen
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Self-Portrait: Pittura, 2024

    165 x 135 cm, oil on linen
    Please enquire for further information.

  • The Green Candle, 2024

    80 x 55 cm, oil on linen
    Please enquire for further information.

  • A Return to Tienhoven, 2024

    70 x 50 cm, oil on linen
    £2,200Please enquire for further information.

  • Self-Portrait as Armand Roulin, 2024

    70 x 50 cm, oil on linen
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Self-Portrait with Red Hat, 2024

    70 x 50 cm, oil on linen
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Friend of Dorothy, 2024

    205 x 180 cm, oil on linen
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Self-Portrait: The Painter, 2024

    95 x 155 cm, oil on linen
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Self-Portrait at Night, 2024

    55 x 45 cm, oil on linen
    Please enquire for further information.

  • The Napoleon Jacket, 2024

    70 x 60 cm, oil on linen
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  • The Orange Vest, 2024

    150 x 85 cm, oil on linen
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  • The Echoes, 2024

    120 x 80 cm, oil on linen
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  • The Sailor, 2024

    80 x 55 cm, oil on linen
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Jack with Romain, 2024

    80 x 55 cm, oil on linen
    Please enquire for further information.

  • The Striped Pink Jacket, 2024

    80 x 45 cm, oil on linen
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Self-Portraits, Margate, 2024

    830 x 20 cm, oil on panel
    SOLD

  • Sketches and Gouache Works, 2024

    A5, pencil and gouache on paper
    Please enquire for further information.

Arlington Portraits

  • Arlington Portrait 1, 2024

    15 x 10 cm, oil on panel
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Arlington Portrait 2, 2024

    15 x 10 cm, oil on panel
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Arlington Portrait 3, 2024

    15 x 10 cm, oil on panel
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Arlington Portrait 4, 2024

    15 x 10 cm, oil on panel
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Arlington Portrait 5

    15 x 10 cm, oil on panel
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Arlington Portrait 6, 2024

    15 x 10 cm, oil on panel
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Arlington Portrait 7, 2024

    15 x 10 cm, oil on panel
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Arlington Portrait 8, 2024

    15 x 10 cm, oil on panel
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Arlington Portrait 9, 2024

    15 x 10 cm, oil on panel
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  • Arlington Portrait 10, 2024

    15 x 10 cm, oil on panel
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  • Arlington Portrait 11, 2024

    15 x 10 cm, oil on panel
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  • Arlington Portrait 12, 2024

    15 x 10 cm, oil on panel
    Please enquire for further information.

Small Panels

  • Small Panel 2

    10 x 15 cm
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Small Panel 3

    10 x 15 cm
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Small Panel 4

    10 x 15 cm
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Small Panel 5

    10 x 15 cm
    Please enquire for further information.

ELISSA CRAY

  • Woods I, 2024

    130cm x 103cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film. Digital Print on Platinum Bartya 300gsm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Woods II, 2024

    130cm x 103cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film. Digital Print on Platinum Bartya 300gsm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Woods III, 2024

    130cm x 103cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film. Digital Print on Platinum Bartya 300gsm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Woods IV, 2024

    130cm x 103cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film. Digital Print on Platinum Bartya 300gsm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Woods V, 2024

    130cm x 103cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film. Digital Print on Platinum Bartya 300gsm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Woods VI, 2024

    130cm x 103cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film. Digital Print on Platinum Bartya 300gsm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Woods VII, 2024

    130cm x 103cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film. Digital Print on Platinum Bartya 300gsm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Woods VIII, 2024

    130cm x 103cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film. Digital Print on Platinum Bartya 300gsm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Woods IX, 2024

    130cm x 103cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film. Digital Print on Platinum Bartya 300gsm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Woods X, 2024

    130cm x 103cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film. Digital Print on Platinum Bartya 300gsm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Woods XI, 2024

    12.5 cm x 10 cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film
    Hand printed on Ilford Fibre based Gloss photographic paper In black aluminium frame 40 cm x 30 cm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Woods XII, 2024

    12.5 cm x 10 cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film
    Hand printed on Ilford Fibre based Gloss photographic paper In black aluminium frame 40 cm x 30 cm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Woods XIII, 2024

    12.5 cm x 10 cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film
    Hand printed on Ilford Fibre based Gloss photographic paper In black aluminium frame 40 cm x 30 cm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Woods XIV, 2024

    12.5 cm x 10 cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film
    Hand printed on Ilford Fibre based Gloss photographic paper In black aluminium frame 40 cm x 30 cm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Woods XV, 2024

    12.5 cm x 10 cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film
    Hand printed on Ilford Fibre based Gloss photographic paper In black aluminium frame 40 cm x 30 cm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Woods XVI, 2024

    12.5 cm x 10 cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film
    Hand printed on Ilford Fibre based Gloss photographic paper In black aluminium frame 40 cm x 30 cm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.

  • Woods XVII, 2024

    12.5 cm x 10 cm, Shot on Fomapan 100, 5 x 4 film
    Hand printed on Ilford Fibre based Gloss photographic paper In black aluminium frame 40 cm x 30 cm

    Edition of 3
    Please enquire for further information.