Sikelela Owen

Sikelela Owen was born in 1984, in London where she lives and works.

Owens work is made up predominately of loose figure paintings, drawings, and prints of friends, family, and people of interest. She holds a PG Diploma from the Royal Academy Schools and her work was featured in 2015 Thames and Hudson publication ‘100 Painters of Tomorrow’.

Owen has exhibited nationally and internationally. Including solo exhibition at LDM Gallery Florence (2020), James Freeman Gallery London (2019), HSBC space London (2018) and NAM projects Milan (2014). Group exhibition includes Gesso Space, Vienna (2019); Jerwood Space, West Sussex (2015) and Spaces, London (2017). In 2019 Owen was an Abbey Fellow at the British School at Rome and she has worked with the Charity Hospital Rooms.

Ideas of community and intimacy are central to the artist’s work. Recently focusing on the ideas of storytelling, memory and loss. The work draws from the history of paintings, personal imagery and wider imagery so readily available. Figures are captured enacting everyday rite, in their moments of leisure and vulnerability. 

Undefined spaces and underpainting bring a curiosity to the work.

artist’s website