Diane Chappalley

Lives and works in London, UK

Artist statement

Diane Chappalley (b.1991, Fribourg, CH, currently based in London) creates figurative landscapes in oil paint and ceramic sculptures, that draw on transitional experiences of death and birth, love and loss, trauma and resilience. Inspired by her personal history, the mysticism of the Swiss alps, classical sculptures and symbolism, her work is deeply spiritual and psychological. She embraces the ability of painting to hold multiple readings at once. Among washes of colours that suggest both soil and skin tones, the human figures are silent, depicted with neutral colour and the raw linen left exposed. They resemble figures carved from stone; statues lost in time. Captured in their state of becoming, her flowers are in contrast a proposition of what once was, what is, and what can become. Chappalley plays with the ability of oil painting and ceramic to record human gestures through touch. Her work becomes a vehicle of intimacy; taking us through the porosity of inner and outer worlds. It is a reflection on our primal human emotions, our capability for rebirth, and our relationship with the natural world.

Artwork