Tania Skeaping
Artist Statement
My work is about shared spaces. I grew up in rural England and was aware of sharing the land with other species of flora and fauna. Having freedom to roam I had encounters with birds, farm animals, dogs, cats, rats, insects and parasites, as we crossed each other's spaces. I observed the constant ebbing and flowing of the seasons and growth as farmers re-drew their boundary hedges and the edges of sowed fields and then nature redrew hers. This is a tiny echo of the much bigger processes going on worldwide.
As a young adult, after a decade living in cities, I returned to rural living and saw anew the spaces and the things I had taken for granted as a child. I am inquisitive about this relationship between the domestic, the tame and the wild, and about how other artists and craftspeople have described it in their work. This relationship exemplifies the biggest question of our time; how we share with other humans and other flora and fauna the resources of our planet. By placing the non-human in an unexpected position within a composition my intention is to flip the old adage ‘out of sight, out of mind’. To extend that feeling of the unexpected I use colour and brush work to create a sense of the uncanny or strange.
Selected Exhibitions
Sidney Nolan Trust, Sidney Nolan Art Prize, The Rodd, Herefordshire, July-October 2026
A Beach Scene, Blue Door Gallery, Martha's Vineyard, July 2026
Thinking of a Place, Blue Door Gallery, Brooklyn, April 2026
Memento Amoris, The Lido Stores, Margate, 7 February - 15 March 2026
The Irving Gallery Open, Oxford, 31st January to 28th February 2026
Paintingsince2000 Open call 2025 online www.paintingsince2000.com 1 December 2025 - 31 January 2026
Artists of Fame and of Promise – The Summer Show, David Messum Fine Art, London 6 August - 5 September 2025
Paper Works, RWA Biennial Open, Bristol, 25 Jan – 27 Apr 2025
BEEP Painting Biennial 2024, Swansea 9 Nov- 21 Dec 2024
A Room of One's Own, Irving Contemporary Oxford, 2 March - 5 April 2024
The Ingram Prize, Finalist, Pavilion Gallery, Cromwell Place, London, from 22 – 26 November 2023
Do Not Swallow, Safehouse galleries 1 & 2, Peckham 19 - 24 September 2023
Catalyst, Oriel Canfas, Cardiff (group) 21 October - 6 November 2022
A Room of Her Own, Group Exhibition, from 8th March 2022 online Irving Contemporary, Oxford
Contemporary British Painting Prize 2021, long listed
Figurative Art Now, 2021, Mall Galleries, London
Summer Exhibition, Exhibited 2022 and 2025 Royal Academy, London
John Moores Painting Prize, 2020, reached stage 2
Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, 2019-2023 & 2025 Woolwich Arsenal, London
Open Exhibition, 2015-2019, 2022, 2025, 2026 Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Wells Art Contemporary, 2018, Wells, Somerset
The Observatory: perspectives on landscape, society and spirit, 2017, Exeter University
Drawn, Royal West of England Academy, 2017, Bristol
ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, selected by Chris Orr RA, 2016, Mall Galleries, London
Lynn Painters’ and Stainers’ prize, 2016, Mall Galleries, London
Education
Turps Correspondence Course 2021-2026
Visual Studies and History of Art, Oxford Brookes University, Joint Hons 1992-1995
Foundation Art Studies, Plymouth University, 1991
Residencies
JOYA AiR, the Parque Natural Sierra María - Los Vélez, Andalucía, Spain, 4-11 April 2024