These works of abstracted figurative heads are portraits that explore the terrain of identity and the psyche, informed by D’Aragona’s work as a psychotherapist.
The process begins with drawings of heads; eyes and mouths predominate as portals into the body and the inner world and the skin of paint becomes the interface between outer and inner.
In inviting the unpredictable, the surface is disrupted by a process of application, mark making and erasure, mimicking the inconsistency of memory and experiences. Paint is applied by fingers, brushes and implements; the viscosity of the paint is varied from thinned to thick impasto in a juxtaposition of conflicting impulses, the gap between ideal, fantasy and reality and between our techno age and nature.
Education
2002-2009 BA Hons Fine Art (First), University College Falmouth, Cornwall
2013 BathSpa University Postgraduate Certificate in Fine Art
2014/15, 2017 Turps Correspondence – Mentored Painting Course
Awards
2010 National Open Art Competition South West Regional Prize
Exhibitions
2020 ‘Beating Time’, ARB Cambridge
2019 ‘Elemental’, Tremenheere Art Gallery, Penzance
2018 Wells Art Contemporary Open, Selected
2017 NSA Critic’s Choice selected by art critic Nicholas Usherwood, Penzance
2017 Newlyn Society of Artists ‘Borders’ Tremenheere Gallery, Penzance, Selected
2017 Pay and Display, Centrespace Gallery, Bristol, Selected
2016 The Dark Arts – Candid Arts Trust, Islington London, Selected
2016 ‘Correspond’ Artspace Halifax, Rye Creative Centre and IR11 Gallery, Edinburgh
2015 All wrapped Up, Newlyn Society of Artists, Salthouse Gallery St Ives, Selected
2015 ‘Are we almost at a place’, 44ad Gallery, Bath
2015 NSA 293, Newlyn Society of Artists, Penwith Gallery, St Ives, Selected
2014 Wells Art Contemporary Open, Selected
2012 Zeitgist Arts Open, London, Selected
2010 Amiri Prize, National Open Art Competition Chichester, Selected
2010 Silent Signals, St Ives
2010 A Strange Country, The Crypt Gallery, St Ives
2009 National Open Art Competition, Chichester, Selected
2009 Subversive Figures, St Ives Cornwall
2007 Spontaneous Combustion, Cornwall