Shona Neary / Sketchy Shona
My first solo exhibition brought a central painting into live tattooing, related symbols, paste-ups and the changing room around them.
My first solo exhibition
Life in Progress was my first solo exhibition in Berlin at Pink Dot Gallery. Looking back, I can see how the work brought one central painting, related works, returning symbols and a live action together in the room.
I am not calling it a collection by default. I am keeping the question open because this was the first time the practice operated as one connected system rather than a group of separate paintings.
The painting at the centre
The central painting and the exhibition share the title Life in Progress. I created it in a state of numbness and shock. That made me want to lean into intense colour and form and create a surrealist take on things, because that is how my reality felt when I was able to slow down. I think of it as the storm before the process: a storm of feeling and life, held in numbness and close to breaking.
I paint my figures from the bones outward, adding layer by layer. In this painting, the body sits beneath a shifting field of cloud, colour and atmosphere. It became the point from which the other parts could move.
The surrounding paintings and studies move through bodies, hands, faces, objects, interiors and fragments of visual memory. Some are quiet and observational. Others are direct, physical or difficult to place. Together they show a way of looking that is still changing.
When the painting reaches skin
At the centre of the exhibition was a live installation. I tattooed motifs from the paintings onto participants, bringing the marks into a temporary exchange. The tattoo was not an illustration added after the painting. It was another surface through which the same work could continue.
The symbols also appeared in paste-ups and wall marks. A star-like form, small abstract shapes and hand-drawn lettering connected canvas to skin, the room and the city-facing side of the work. Repetition made the exhibition active rather than sealed.
A room that remains in progress
The exhibition held finished paintings, studies, notes, process images, people arriving, people being tattooed and traces gathered around the work. Showing those states together mattered. The room could hold what was complete and how other people entered it.
Life in Progress is about perception and connection more than one personal narrative. It asks what happens when an image moves between canvas, skin and wall, and when the viewer becomes part of that movement. The archive keeps it as a possible first chapter in the wider practice. Whether it becomes the first named collection remains a studio decision.
Images from this journal record
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / central painting / Life in Progress Artwork: Sketchy Shona (Shona Neary).
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / central work / exhibition view
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / central work / studio record
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / process / figure painting
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / live tattoo / participant
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / live tattoo / central work
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / live installation / room
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / tattoo / star symbol
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / tattoo / related symbols
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / room / live work
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / room / live installation
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / paste-up / Life in Progress
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / room / paintings and large study
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / room / paintings and studies
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / room / notes and studies
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / room / paintings
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / painting / portrait work
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / opening / artist portrait
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / opening / exhibition room
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / process / hand on figure
Life in Progress: a painting moves through skin and space / portrait / room mark
Credits
- Original Sketchy Shona exhibition record based on supplied Life in Progress documentation and explanation text.