An Art on a Postcard Mini Auction Curated by India Rose James

About

Sterling has carved out a distinctive niche in using paint to address questions of blackness and whiteness in twenty-first century Britain.  

Born in Peterborough in 1996 and graduating from the RCA in 2020, Sterling has carved out a distinctive niche in using paint to address questions of blackness and whiteness in twenty-first century Britain. Her paintings present scenes of colourful mayhem with a nostalgic twist and signature ‘slapstick’ style, combining joyous celebration with a subtle critique of racialised ways of seeing.   

Blending pointed references like this into her depiction of ordinary scenes and subjects, Sterling’s work reflects on how we are confronted by racialised discourse everywhere in the everyday. Even happy or anodyne spaces are encoded with structures of othering and difference; every object, every skin tone, is assigned its place in a drama that continues beyond the edges of the canvas. 

Please do not bid on artwork in our Art on a Postcard auctions if you intend on selling the artwork after you have purchased it. This auction has been organised for charity and all artworks have been generously donated by the artists to raise money for the Hepatitis C Trust. When the work produced for the charity is sold on the secondary market it damages our relationship with the artist and prevents us from fundraising.