Sabrina Shah

Game Over?

I remember presenting work in containers as part of my learning during Covid, folders of inspiration, photos.

During the LockDown there was a lot of commentary that we would ‘build back better’, a new normal. Everyone will have their own story from the last few years.

My early work was about greed, over-eating and never feeling full. My work has been changing. The only certain thing is change, for me painting has always been a mixture of truth, my story and what I would like to see.

I took a break from my degree during Covid because in my heart I know painting is physical and tangible. I still belief that painting has to be seen/witnessed; this will not change, but as for a community of artists and friendship and peer group, that matters. Sometimes in my work there is subconscious marks about cycles of power, the inevitable, the way our parents’ behaviour maybe haunting us.

Professional: I won the Castlegate prize for a painting about hope. I’m drawn to all things to do with personal growth. I was funded by the Leverhulme Trust for part of my degree and I have exhibited at The John Moores. I love painting. I love the way it is ok for things not to go together.

Painting allows me to explore. Without thinking but with feeling.

Well played everyone. Play On?

In my paintings, subject and process are intimately connected and unmaking allows for slippage and collision–holding a mirror to contemporary culture’s aversion to imperfection by laying bare desire and tension. I'm interested in the history of the surface, while resisting a final finished surface.

The shadow of complex home environments and enmeshed cultures loom over my work, which explores the intractability of trauma in human relationships. My father is from Pakistan, my mother is Chinese.

Physical pain–and the unseen and unacknowledged centrality it wields over a female life–is embodied deeply within my practice. I find that fear–and the embrace of fear–increasingly figure in my paintings. Fear is the inevitable flip-side of pain, both a consequence and a warning. An acknowledgment of that fear is threaded through my work.

I am curious about people, animals, food, celebration and human behaviour. The trapped figures that populate my work are looking at those who are looking at them, searching for answers. I want my paintings to invite you to look, to really take a close and honest look.

Photograph: @joncarchdeacon