THE UNWRITTEN SCRIPT

7th March - 13th April 2024

Xanthe Burdett
Bella Hunt
DDC
Holly Mills
Anna Ruth

Curated by Elaine ML Tam

Sarah Kravitz is pleased to present ‘The Unwritten Script’, a group show featuring painting and sculpture works by five emerging artists. Taking the metaphor of the script as a formal device for mental structuration, ‘The Unwritten Script’ considers the incipient moment of an image, sensation or feeling before it is reified as conscious thought. Appealing to the idea of the ‘unscripted’, the selected works revel in improbable situations, ones which variously involve phantasy, amorphous being, destabilisation or visual slippage. That the organic insistently recurs as deep dream in certain of the pieces perhaps speaks to a yearning for pre-formation, against the tyranny of the script-as-system. Giving shape to that which cannot be described let alone named, ‘The Unwritten Script’ challenges the authority of the fixed reading by celebrating the strange states of gestation, transformation and mutation.

Appealing to the idea of the ‘unscripted’, the selected works revel in improbable situations, ones which variously involve phantasy, amorphous being, destabilisation or visual slippage.

Anna Ruth

Anna Ruth (b. 1992) , is a Czech emerging artist, infusing her creative output with a unique personal mythology. Her art, encompassing both paintings and installations, navigates the realms of timelessness and a profound connection to nature. This connection is envisioned through what might be considered the lens of early humans, presenting nature as a mysterious and somewhat dangerous domain due to its impenetrable aspects.

Ruth skillfully plays with the balance between figuration and abstraction, employing large formats and a subtle use of light glazing techniques in her work. Her palette is rich in earthy tones, reflecting her thematic focus on the natural world, and she seamlessly integrates painting with sound, enhancing the sensory experience of her art.

Anna Ruth Untitled, 2024 Acrylic on canvas

Anna Ruth
Untitled, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
150×150cm

Anna Ruth
Bird, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
100×100cm

Anna Ruth Candlelight, 2024 Acrylic on canvas

Anna Ruth
Candlelight, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
60×60cm

Xanthe Burdett

Xanthe Burdett (b.1995) is a figurative oil painter from Devon, currently studying MA Painting at the Royal College of Art. Her work is embedded in the woodlands that fringe Dartmoor, weaving together buried artefacts, non-human memory, classical mythologies and folk tales to create strange luminous worlds beyond the confines of the rational and known. 

Xanthe has exhibited work in group shows in London including Palimpsestic Impressions at Arusha Gallery, Works on Paper 4 & 5 at Blue Shop Gallery, the Young Masters Art Prize with Cynthia Corbett Gallery, Ing Discerning Eye, Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the RA Summer Exhibition. She is the winner of the De Laszlo Foundation Young Artist Award. 

Xanthe Burdett
Soft hands on early leaves 2023
Unheard but not unanswered 2023
Oil on board
Each: 17.8 × 12.7 cm

Xanthe Burdett The hunter, 1800 Oil on linen 50 × 70cm

Xanthe Burdett
The hunter, 2024
Oil on linen
50 × 70cm

Xanthe Burdett
Time Works on a flattened disk, 2024
Oil on linen
175×85cm

Holly Mills

Born in London in 1990, Holly Mills completed her studies at The Drawing Year in 2018, following her education at Camberwell College of Arts where she earned the prestigious V&A Student Illustrator of the Year award in 2012. Holly’s work delves into the fascinating process by which memories evolve into fiction when reproduced.

Her art seeks to navigate the delicate confluence of memory and imagination, blending dreams with reality. Through her creative process, she articulates the ephemeral nature of thought and evokes the essence of places she has experienced. Her art features a distinct use of flattened spatial divisions to capture simultaneous moments, employing recurring motifs and figures depicted in a state of motion to craft a surreal visual narrative.

Holly Mills
Container 2023
Oil on board, greyboard frame
31 × 21 cm

Holly Mills
Room 2021
Watercolour, acrylic and pencil on gesso’d board
22×18 cm

Holly Mills
Lung 2023
Watercolour and oil pastel on board
12 × 18 cm

Holly Mills
Flash of light, bright, white 2024
Carbon, collage, ink, pencil and egg tempera on paper
26 × 21 cm

Bella Hunt & Dante Di Calce

Bella Hunt & Dante Di Calce are a Franco-American artist duo living and working in Marseille.The duo are founding members of Southway Studio. Bella Hunt studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de Marseille and art history in Rome. Dante Di Calce is self-taught, and comes from a family of craftsmen and artists.

Bella Hunt & DDC’s work is rooted in pre-industrial craftsmanship.

The duo’s sculptures and ceramics are historical fantasies, paying homage to ancient and medieval worlds, as well as to popular culture, from fantasy to car tuning to soccer. Using ancient techniques and processes (stucco-limestone, ceramics...), BH & DDC focus on the creation of sculpture-objects, looking at history and the decorative arts through the eyes of contemporary artists.

Their body of work are included in the Hermès Foundation in Paris curated by Southway Studio founder Emmanuelle Luciani.

Bella Hunt & DDC
Diesel Memories (Moreux Shield) 2023
Glazed ceramic
17x 14cm

Bella Hunt & DDC Diesel Memories (Visconti Hood) 2023 Glazed Ceramic 27.5x10x5cm

Bella Hunt & DDC
Diesel Memories (Visconti Hood) 2023
Glazed Ceramic
27.5x10x5cm

Bella Hunt & DDC
Drapé noir II 2023
Glazed Ceramic
30x9x4cm