A major theme of the show is the association between women and bodies of water, pursued here through a study of edgeland spaces, particularly the imagery of a pond. Ponds symbolise both contemplation and freedom, they are darkly fertile places where death and life coexist, and where new life emerges from the traces of the old. The circumscribed presence of a garden makes these connections feel private and personal. The shadows and reflections create a frisson between subject and ground, the uncertainty causing the eye to slip from one reading and another.

Ruth Murray

Born in 1984, Birmingham, UK. Ruth Murray graduated from the Royal College of Art and was the Derek Hill Scholar at the British School at Rome in 2008. Her notable exhibitions include Northern Stars at the A Foundation, Saatchi’s 4 New Sensations, The Creative Cities Collection at the Barbican and the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery. She was awarded an Elizabeth Greenshields grant in 2021 and 2024, she won the Jackson’s Painting Prize in 2020 and she was shortlisted for the Contemporary British Painting Prize in 2019, (subsequently elected as a member in 2023). Her work is in private and public collections worldwide, including UNESCO’s Creative Cities Collection, the Whitaker Museum and Manchester Art Gallery.