Artist in ReSidence: Alfie Worrall
The Kowitz & Kravitz Residency in Rye East Sussex, hosts Alfie Worrall for a period of focused studio development, marking a decisive shift in the artist’s practice. As part of an ongoing artist residency programme supporting emerging contemporary artists, the residency provides a dedicated environment for production, research, and experimentation in London.
Worrall’s earlier work centred on consumerism and digital culture, engaging with the visual language of online imagery and mediated experience. During the residency, this position gives way to a more introspective approach. The work turns toward figuration, with compositions that feel reduced, sparse, and psychologically charged.
This shift culminates in the Sick works, a series of contemporary paintings depicting solitary figures held in states of discomfort, tension, and withdrawal. Set against minimal and anachronistic backgrounds, the figures appear suspended, with emphasis placed on posture, gesture, and spatial dislocation. Narrative recedes, replaced with a heightened sensitivity to atmosphere and condition.
The series engages themes of isolation, anxiety, and emotional fatigue, reflecting broader conditions within contemporary life. Each work holds a sense of unresolved pressure, where the figure operatesas both subject and site of strain. Personal experience and collective unease sit in close proximity, without resolution or release.
