CV
"The communication between viewer and artwork, or self and other, are vast in the case of Samantha Wilson’s work. Our attention is immediately caught in the forms that loom over us, engaging presences. Large scale figures and bodily forms rendered in charcoal and ink stare out in uncompromising and stark confrontation. Wilson chooses pastel shades and ominous pinks against the shadowy, smoky contrast of charcoal to draw beautiful yet provocative reflections of individual characters" - New Blood Art
RESEARCH PROFILE
“I consider the painter's role in re-framing painful realities that exist around us, not merely in their ability to reimagine the futures we are moving towards, but to question what painting might offer the displaced - to call for empathy, illuminating cross-cultural differences, and ultimately the necessity for compassionate relating, regardless of race, age, gender or political status”.
Samantha Wilson’s drawings and paintings go in search of the visual tension between resolved and unresolved forms. Her work contemplates social, political and cross cultural human experiences, with a recent focus on mass displacement within Europe. Informed by her ongoing collecting and archiving of photographs, her paintings reimagine the photographic image. Watercolour, powder pigments, charcoal and oil paint are pushed and pulled to reveal and conceal bodies, faces and identities, intentionally straddling abstraction and narrativity.
A figurative artist from Scotland, Wilson received a Bachelors of Fine Art with first class honours and a Masters of Fine Art with distinction (2015) from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee, Scotland. She has won many prizes for her work including a John Kinross Scholarship to Florence from the Royal Scottish Academy (2015), the W. Gordon Smith Runner Up Prize (2016), a Klein Artist Works Scholarship (2017) and a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust Scholarship (2021) among others. She has participated in multiple international artist residencies in Europe, India and Kenya and after working as an artist for five years in Lisbon, Portugal, she returned to the UK in 2022 to pursue a Master of Research at the Royal College of Art in London. She wishes to extend her research onto a practice-based PhD in London to further explore figurative painting's potentiality to respond and entice empathetic notions to displacement and trauma.
EDUCATION
THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART, LONDON UK
MRes Art & Humanities | Sep 2022 - Sep 2023
DUNCAN OF JORDANSTONE COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN, DUNDEE, UK
Masters of Fine Art with Distinction | Sep 2014 - Nov 2015
DUNCAN OF JORDANSTONE COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN, UK
Bachelors of Fine Art with First Class Honours | Sep 2010 - Jun 2014
OCAD UNIVERSITY, TORONTO, ON, CANADA
Transatlantic Exchange in Drawing and Painting | Aug 2012 - Dec 2012
DUNDEE COLLEGE, DUNDEE, UK
HNC in Contemporary Art Practices | Sep 2008 - Jun 2010
EXHIBITIONS
UPCOMING
July 2023 - Earthwise, Group show, Beaconsfield Gallery, London.
GROUP
2023 - Inner Workings, Cooke Latham Gallery, London.
2023 - RBA 200th Anniversary Group Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London.
2022 - New QEST Scholars, Guildhall, London.
2022 - Open Studio Exhibition - LX Factory, Studio 1.14B, First Floor, Lisbon, Portugal
2021 - Open Studio Exhibition - LX Factory, Studio 1.14B, First Floor, Lisbon, Portugal
2020 - Sustainable Connection – Con Gusto/Unobvious Lab, Lisbon, Portugal
2020 - MFA Alumni Show, Flora Kirsch Beck Art Gallery: Alma College, Michigan, USA.
2019 - Ateliers Abertas Edição 3, Rua Conceição da Gloria, Lisbon, Portugal.
2017 - 12 x 12 - Galeria da Graça, Lisbon, Portugal.
2017 - Ateliers Abertas, Rua Conceicao da Gloria, Lisbon, Portugal.
2017 - Imagining the Future, A School and Community Arts Development Initiative - with Chittaranjan Nayak, as part of c-Hub and Tafaria foundation, at Tafaria Castle, Nyeri, Kenya.
2016 - Group show of community projects as part of c-Hub and Tafaria foundation at Tafaria Castle, Nyeri, Kenya.
2016 - Supporting Mind Scotland, The Image Collective Gallery, Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh, Scotland.
2016 - Zorba the Buddha International Residence Exhibition, Delhi, India.
2016 - Gallery 48 Opening Night, Gallery 48, Westport, Dundee, Scotland.
2016 - Open Studio Exhibition, Jiwar International Residence for Artists and Researchers in Urban creativity, Barcelona, Spain.
2016 - The W. Gordon Smith Painting Competition Exhibition, The Dovecot Gallery, Edinburgh.
2016 - RSA Open, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland.
2015 - Winter Postcard Show, WALL PROJECTS, 13 Bents Road, Montrose, Scotland.
2015 - ARTSYLAND 9 NEW GRADUATES EXHIBITION II, WALL PROJECTS, 13 Bents Road Montrose, Scotland.
2015 - New Scottish Artists. The Fleming Collection Gallery, London.
2015 - New Contemporaries 'Selected Artist', RSA (Royal Scottish Academy) Edinburgh.
2015 - RSW (Royal Society Watercolours), RSA (Royal Scottish Academy) Edinburgh.
2014 - Solstice Gallery De Goede Toronto, ON.
2014 - Winter Tales, Duncan of Jordanstone College of art and Design, Dundee.
2014- Best of Degree show, The Sixfoot Gallery, Glasgow.
2014 - Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art Degree Show, Dundee.
2013 - Open Up I'm Burning Through, Top Floor Studio, Toronto.
SOLO
2019 - A Collective Public (Part 1) - Fabrica Braço de Prata, Lisbon, Portugal.
2015 - Beyond The veil, Masters show, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee.
2012 - Open up I'm Burning Through The Blossom Lounge, Toronto.
2012 - The Pittenweem Arts Festival, Pittenweem, Fife.
2011 - The Pittenweem Arts Festival, Pittenweem, Fife.
AWARDS & ACCOLADES
2021 - Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) scholarship.
2021 - QEST and Cockpit Arts London Professional Development Programme for new QEST scholars.
2021 - The Eaton Fund grant for artists
2017 - Klein Artist Works scholarship.
2016 - Nominee Scottish Variety Award for Best new Scottish artist.
2016 - The W Gordon Smith Award runner up prize.
2015 - The Fife Decorative and fine Arts Society Award.
2015 - The Duncan of Jordanstone Postgraduate award for best academic performance.
2015 - Royal Scottish Academy John Kinross Scholarship to Florence.
2015 - Friends of the RSA award
2014 - The Alexander Graham Monro Travel Award best work for an artist under 30.
2015 - The William Sangster Phillip's academic scholarship and bursary
2014 - The James Guthrie Memorial Art Prize
2014 - The Hermione Hammond runner up drawing prize.
2010 - The Benni Esposito Drawing Award
ARTIST RESIDENCIES & SOCIAL PROJECTS
2017 - Co-founder of Arts Initiative | Nyeri, Kenya
2016 - Tafaria Castle | Nyeri, Kenya
2016 - Zorba the Buddha | New Delhi
2016 - JIWAR Creation & Society | Barcelona, Spain
2015 - John Kinross Scholarship RSA | Florence, Italy
PRESS
2023 - Inner workings at Cooke Latham Gallery
2021 - QEST Scholar 2021
2021 - Samantha Wilson’s illuminating portfolio highlights a dark corner of a global humanitarian crisis
2020 - Samantha Wilson, b.1990, University of Dundee Fine Art Collections, Tower Foyer & Lamb Galleries.
2015 - GQ Magazine, Why Dundee is becoming Britain's coolest little city, by Robert Johnston.
2015 - New Scottish Artists on Show at the Fleming Collection, London, by Ian Caldwell.
2015 - ART Scottish Art News: RSA: New Contemporaries 2015, Griselda Murray Brown.
2015 - University News, Art and Architecture graduates to exhibit at 2015 new Contemporaries by Grant Hill.
2015 - Art reviews: RSW by William Crosbie
2015 - STV Dundee, Award-winning Dundee artists pick up nearly £5k in prizes, by Joe Birchenall.
2015 - Dundee University, Travel Beckons for Award Winning Artists, by Grant Hill.
2015 - Dundee Wave 102 Radio, Interview on RSW Alexander Graham Monro Travel Award.
2014 - Central Station, The Creative Social Network, Life After Art School with Samantha Wilson.
2014 - Central Station, The Creative Social Network, DJCAD Degree Show Review.
2013 - Holly In The City blog, Upcoming Art Show, Open Up I'm Burning Through.
ART GALLERIES
- New Blood Art, London UK (2014-present)
- Galeria AFK, Lisbon, Portugal (2017-present)
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
- The Royal Scottish Academy John Kinross Scholarship Collection
- Ninewells Hospital Medical Library Private & Public Collection
- University of Dundee Fine Art Collections, Tower Foyer & Lamb Galleries