BIOGRAPHY
Elsa Rouy is an artist from Sittingbourne, Kent who now lives and works in London. Currently completing her BA Hons in Painting at Camberwell College of the arts. She creates artwork that takes a female gaze on sex, its anxiety and pleasure: focusing on snapshot intimate moments that become sexual between the main subject and their surroundings. She plays around with depictions of female and male genitalia, making paintings of figures with their sexual organs revealed, using these as a way to navigate anxieties that come with having, and being conscious of, a body. The paintings also denote to themes of emotional illusion and trepidation between people, highlighted through sexual intercourse. Her work focuses on bodily fluids such as semen, milk, urine, sweat and saliva and their wetness, using the imagery to focus on their involvement during sex as there are parallels between emotions when confronted with such fluids, there is a repulsion towards them when not involved in intercourse, contrary to this, during sex the same fluids that repulse us become alluring. Elsa’s main aim is to include the viewer as a voyeuristic counterpart within an erotic scene that feels personal rather than pornographic. Ensnaring the viewer with an initial feeling of comfort, intrigue and excitement, then permeating the security with a subconscious reaction of repulsion and uneasiness.
EDCATION
2018-Current
Camberwell college of the arts (UAL), BA Painting, London
2016-2018
University for the creative arts, Level 3 extended diploma in art and design: Distinction, Rochester
EXHIBITIONS
2020, Begin Again, Guts Gallery, London
2020, When spiders unite they can tie down a lion, Daniel Raphael Gallery, London
2020, Drawn Together, Unit London, London
2020, No time like the present, Public Gallery, London
2020, Guts Gallery Claps back, Guts Gallery, London
2020, Hands in the digital age, Molly Stedgwick.com, London
2020, When shit hits the fan, Guts Gallery, Guts Gallery, London
2020, Don’t Panic, Southwark Park Galleries, London
2019, End of year, Camberwell college of the arts, London
2019, Lazy Susan's Sizzling Prism, Safehouse 1, London
2018, Christmas show, The Flying Dutchman, London
2018, Foundation show, University for the creative arts, Rochester
PUBLICATIONS
13th August 2020, Scarlett Baker, Begin Again: the online exhibition challenging austerity and racial
oppression, The Love magazine
27th March 2020, TJ Sidhu, When shit hits the fan (in the art world), The Face magazine
23rd March 2020, Katie Dunn, Guts Gallery present ‘When shit hits the fan’ a digital Instagram
exhibition opening this Thursday 26th March, FAD magazine