Anya Paintsil

London

The Welsh-Ghanaian textile artist Anya Paintsil makes figurative works that explore themes of racism, class and femininity, often reflecting on her childhood in Wrexham, north Wales. In pieces such as Anya or Anum (2020), Paintsil renders faces, arms and torsos in a playful yet discombobulating style, floating disembodied across a beige ground. Its title refers to her experience of consistently being mistaken for other people of colour. Paintsil combines punch-needle embroidery and rug-hooking techniques with Afro hair-styling methods, using yarn and both human and synthetic hair on hessian to create works that can measure more than 2.5 metres wide. Her work is held in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Museum Wales, Arts Council England, the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester and the Women’s Art Collection, Cambridge University, among others. She was awarded the Wakelin Award in 2020.

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