Kelly-Anne Davitt

Bio

Artist and curator Kelly-Anne Davitt is known for her hyper-real painting style in vibrant pop tones and her humorous, provocative light sculptures. Her immaculate canvases blend traditional still life and portraiture with contemporary influences drawn from advertising, pop culture, childhood nostalgia and feminist themes. She has exhibited widely across the UK, from Cork Street to The Potteries.

Her curatorial debut, The Most Powerful Woman in the Universe at Gallery 46 in Whitechapel, was a critically acclaimed and timely feminist exhibition. Recent shows include Pop Now! at Gallery 46, Kapow – The Art of Superheroes and Villains at The Potteries Museum, Painting Now and 12 Hughes at HIX Art in Old Street. Her solo exhibitions Beach Balls and Melons at Dadiani Fine Art, Cork Street, and Feel Good at Blacks, Soho, further highlight her dynamic and playful approach to contemporary figurative painting.

Statement

I work from a place where glossy perfection, the kind sold to us in adverts and packaging, feels almost too familiar. I’m drawn to those shiny, hyper-real surfaces, the pop-coloured illusions of fulfilment, and I paint them not because they comfort me, but because they trap me.

My paintings begin life loud and insistent: “Add more, darken here, build that up.” I layer oil over oil until the tensions fall away — until the work becomes quiet. Then I move it somewhere fresh, observe it anew. When it stops speaking to me, I know it’s done.

I don’t paint for an audience. I paint to escape, to play — to create a space where I speak first, and the viewer responds later. For me, art is a way to play, to escape, and to communicate ideas.