Naomi Polonsky | Assistant Curator | The Women’s Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge
Naomi Polonsky is Assistant Curator at The Women’s Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. Having graduated from the University of Oxford and the Courtauld Institute of Art, she has worked at a number of museums and galleries including Tate Modern, Kettle’s Yard and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London. She has written on modern and contemporary art for publications including The Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement, Hyperallergic and Artsy, and has presented in conferences at Kettle’s Yard, Tate St Ives, Lakeside Arts, Nottingham, and the New Art Gallery, Walsall.
On this years Selection, Naomi says…
“There are some outstanding works on display at the fair this year. In particular, a lot of the young women artists on show have produced original, interesting and technically adept work. I enjoy the experimentation with materials in pieces like Gabrielle K Brown’s Greed Never Looked So Good, (which uses resin, fabric and horsehair) and the use of familiar imagery in new, surprising ways like Mimei Thompson’s Metamorphosis: Poppy Painting. So many great things to see!”
Mimei Thompson, Metamorphosis: Poppy Painting, 2021. Courtesy of Art First.
“I love the brushwork in this painting. You can see exactly where the brush has touched – or almost caressed – the canvas, and where the paint has been delicately excised. It recognisably depicts flowers, but it also conveys the artist’s pure enjoyment of colour, form and paint.”
Rachel Louise Brown, Kissing Booth, Fright Nights, West Palm Beach (detail), 2017 . Courtesy of Crane Kalman Brighton.
“There’s a wonderful feeling of mystery to this photograph. It’s both hyperreal and surreal with strong Pop Art vibes. Would definitely have it on my wall!”
Tiffanie Delune, No More Battlefields, Only Flowers (detail), 2021. Courtesy of Ed Cross Fine Art
“This work is so powerful and feminine. The little face on the figure’s forehead reminds me of Frida Kahlo’s Diego on My Mind (1943) – one of my favourite paintings. And the title is a motto we should all live by!”
Paule Vézelay, A Simple Composition (detail), 1968. Courtesy of England and Co.
“This is a beautiful piece. I love the muted colours, the voluptuous shapes and subtle asymmetries. It’s a simple composition (as the title modestly suggests) and an abstract one, but it is suggestive of so many different things: pears, raindrops, a person crying.”
Louise Bourgeois & Tracey Emin, Deep Inside My Heart I Came To You #6, 2009 –10. Courtesy of RAW Editions.
“The product of a collaboration between two great artists, this work is visceral and tender and sad. I love the plumes of blue paint in her belly and the misspelling of ‘lonely.”