Placing intimations of figure within loose, abstracted realms, Lola Stong-Brett’s (b.1996) work embodies the search for belonging in a turbulent world. Ghostly indications of working-class armatures— cartoon characters like Betty Boop, Popeye and Bimbo, or structures like council estates, brickwork and pool tables— anchor themselves against gesture that channel the emotion of the artist’s immediate environment. Stong-Brett’s penchant for the language of graffiti and tattooing with her singular abstract handle of classical proportion ushers viewers into Baroque realms that are varyingly foreboding, melancholy, and hopeful. The artist’s spontaneous process demands that the focus of each piece remain subject to chance: Sometimes the figures at the heart of each composition are consumed by the flurry of abstraction, other times they are left partly-exposed, identifiable only by a finger clinging to a mark or a head rising above the storm. The final works reveal a longing for intimacy in pictorial spaces marked by absence, allowing the characters to become a stand-in for something universal.

Stong-Brett studied at the Royal Drawing School Foundation, London, UK (2018), and subsequently at Edinburgh College of Art, with First Class Honors, Edinburgh, GB (2019). She will have forthcoming solo shows at Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate, UK (2025) and at Guts Gallery, London, UK (2025). Her work has recently been included in exhibitions at Galerie Hussenot, Paris, FR (2024); Guts Gallery, London, UK (2024); Roman Road Gallery, London, UK (2023); and the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, GB (2022). She was selected for the Tracey Emin Artist Residency, Margate, UK from 2023-2024. Stong-Brett currently lives and works in Margate, UK.

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