Anna Arbiter
"6 o'clock"
Oil on board
25 x 25 cm
Originally, a self-taught painter Arbiter in 2019 was awarded a Newman Young Artist scholarship by the Essential School of Painting (ESOP), which allowed her to enroll on a year-long mentorship with Turner Prize nominee David Mach RA. This opportunity has supported Arbiter significantly that has deepened and developed her practice over the past year.
The paintings Arbiter makes evolve slowly over time. She wants them to feel like a naturally occurring phenomena, like fossils, like found objects of a kind. The marks made are gestural and spontaneous, but they are also considered; these paintings are made by someone who thinks carefully – often cautiously – about things, someone who likes to take her time, and hopes they bear the trace of this.
Arbiter stated that she is 'interested in how a painting – how any work of art – can exist as a record of the person who made it. I see my paintings as a kind of handwriting; a mysterious visual extension of my being. Like handwriting, the way I paint may shift and change, but it is always, indelibly, mine.'