Issy Grew (b.1999, Exeter, UK) is a visual artist who currently lives and works in London, graduating from Wimbledon college of Arts in 2021.

 

Primarily an oil painter, her practice surrounds themes of memory, comfort, desire, childhood recollection and British culture. She begins her work by collecting and searching through family photography created in the 2000’s, ranging from her own personal family photo album to screenshots from ‘You’ve Been Framed’ a British comedy series where viewers could contribute to the programme with their humorous home movies, which aired throughout Grews’ childhood. Cropping and collaging selected photographs, her subject matter is created, she is interested in the falsification of memory, and through this process of manipulation a new idealistic, family album is created.

 

Her paintings, often small in size and high in saturation (mirroring 2000’s film photography) depict fleeting relationships in paused moments of time. Her paintings provide an intimate experience for the viewer, to linger in familiar moments that once existed. Although her paintings are perceived autobiographical and sentimental, awkward compositions, recurring motifs (the universal monobloc chair) and light-hearted titles (e.g., It Wasn’t Me and Big shoes, Small Heart) ensure they are balanced with sarcasm, a big part of British humour that Grew continues to explore.