Pop artist Sara Pope’s first exhibition at Grove Gallery, ‘Red’ presents a series of ‘in your face’ – voluptuous multi-media compositions that seek to capture the sensuality and seductive power of deep red lips.
Psychologist Carl Jung described colour as ‘the mother tongue of the subconscious’ and in a season denoted by the rich and tantalising use of red, Pope explores the power and influence that the colour has over the decisions we make and the emotions we feel.
Pope is widely recognised for her evocative portrayals of human lips, drawing on her background as an acclaimed fashion designer and magazine art director she infuses her artworks with a polished, seductive aesthetic. The results are glossy, compelling and in her exploration of the colour red, seek to demonstrate the cultural eloquence of a colour so often synonymised with love, lust, romance and so many other significances, including, of course, Christmas.
Sara starts by applying lipstick to models’ lips, then uses specific makeup and lighting techniques to capture their unique expressions in a photo study. These photos inspire her to paint multiple layers of thin-oiled diluted paint, sometimes mixed with lipstick. The layers are blended to create a glossy surface, resulting in a seductive portrayal of the human mouth that explores the color red’s influence on our autonomy.
Sara Pope, RED, 6th December 2023- 14th January Grove Gallery
