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

About 

Elaine Speirs was born in Johannesburg and moved to Paisley as a child. Her childhood experiences in and between these two places spurred an interest in the themes of fragility, contradiction and reinvention that recur throughout her work. 
 
Speirs explores the stark contrast she observes between the rich contours of female personhood and the depersonalised portraits of women that appear in the public sphere. 
Referencing a variety of imagery - ranging from nineteenth century literature to contemporary photography and film - the work reclaims the fleeting moments of humanity Speirs glimpses in these images - establishing a tentative connection between the distant and the intimate, between the universal and the personal. 

Education 

Edinburgh College of Art BA Hons  

Slade School of Fine Art MA 

Select Exhibitions/Awards 

Solo Exhibtions 
 
2019 AndGallery, Edinburgh, Beautiful Regrets 
2017 Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh, Portrait Of Her 
2014 AndCollective, Bridge of Allan, No Small Dreams 
2013 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, Lost Sleep 
 
Group Exhibitions (selected) 
 
2022 Arusha Gallery, London, Cruel Intentions 
2022 Stratford Gallery, Group Exhibition 
2022 Martha's Contemporary, Group Exhibition, Austin, Texas 
2021 Artist Focus Week, AndGallery, Edinburgh 
2020 Glimpse of Gold. Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh 
2019 BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London 
2018 Arusha Gallery, Art Basel Switzerland 
 
 

Gallery Representation 

Arusha Gallery 
 

Statement about AOAP Submitted Artwork   

The works submitted for AOAP are a series of paintings that have an uneasy coexistence of contradictory states: strength and vulnerability, loneness and hope, love and despair. I examined these tensions by capturing fleeting moments of humanity with Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the D'Ubervilles. A new series of works that are developing in my studio in Edinburgh. 

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.