Denise Evans
Fine Artist
lifetime's Artwork
Welcome to Denise Evans’ Fine Art Portfolio: A Lifetimes Work, representing over 40 years of the artists paintings and creative thinking over that time . At the heart of her artwork is a concern for the internal and in her own unique visual language brings sight to the psyche of the soul. She has never shied away from the autobiographical instead naturally like pen in ink has used it as a well to draw from. Her talent is beyond compare as this Body of Artwork shows, for decades her artwork has revealed exceptional truths of the human condition and in her own distinctive voice has brought vision to the heart of survival. In galleries this Artists Portfolio unites the past and present of her artwork, the Gallery of New Work exhibits her most recent paintings and the Retrospective Galleries encompass the eras her work has traveled over her long career beginning with Family Album when the artist was 23. The artists most recent paintings are available for purchase through Stephen Smith Gallery and can be viewed in the Collectors gallery.
about the artist
Denise is a remarkable fine artist from London with an exceptional fine art education, she studied at the Byam Shaw School Of Fine Arts in London, England then achieved her PhD from the London School of Fine Arts in London. Her work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in Oxford, England. In 1997 she moved from London to the Midwest of the United States of America, in the winter of 1999 she was stricken by a rare neurological disease which left her disabled, an illness inflicting uncontrollable pain, spasm and grand mal seizures that has left her isolated and housebound for close to two decades more.
EXPOSURE
ART OF THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL
“My journey through life is intrinsic to my work, it is the artistic well I draw from, only by striving to unveil my own truths, do I seek to reveal the essential truths which unite us in our own very separate and human journeys through life, can I really be so dissimilar to others now I am so far apart?”
– The Artist
Painting: I Woke Up And Found Myself Here
NEW WORK
WORKING IN SPASM & SEIZURE
15 years the artists studio was left frozen in time as Primary-Progressive MS and Epilepsy with drug-resistant seizures happening multiple times a day, illnesses coming with uncontrollable neurological pain. In 2017 seizures were calmed and she returned to her studio when able and there’s she’s remained. In 2022 she is waiting ground breaking brain surgery at the University of Kansas City Hospital in hope of treating the to date untreatable seizures.
RETROSPECTIVE
LOOKING AT THE PAST
Retrospective galleries begin with ‘Family Album gallery (1986)when at 22 the artist was beginning to find her unique voice, Sea To Me (1987), Dreams On Paper (1988), Preservation (1989), From Decay (1996), Landscapes Internal 1999), Wings (2000), Sleep (2002), Woman Within (2005), these gallery’s journey covering more than 30 years of the artists work and a life that influenced it. Illness entered her life which led to a series of miscarriages and she used it as a well to draw from, those multiple miscarriages birthed her work Preservation shown at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). At 35 an unknown neurological illness left her disabled then a period bedridden but through the years she’s brought forth ‘Landscapes of an Internal’ and visions of being trapped within ‘Body and Mind’ Always her work speaks with brutal honesty, with truths that unite, her honesty has remained a true driving force throughout the years and she has given it the beauty she believes it deserves when seen in a different light.
IN HER OWN WORDS
THE ARTISTS WRITINGS
Handmade books | Poetry | Artwork Diaries | Artists Passions
For more than 30 years the artists writings have sat behind her work as her imagery spilled over from paint into text. Her words have united a greater meaning that depth cannot be divorced from the visual work itself. It’s often been said of the artist writings she “Paints with words.” The art critic – Tony Godfrey wrote of her piece Dreams of Reality – Reality of Dreams: “This is an extraordinary piece of work. It is one of the best attempts to provide an equivalent to different levels of experience – verbal and visual, confessional, anecdotal and speculative – I have read.”
COLLECTORS
Purchase From The Collection
Original oil paintings available for purchase from the artists most recent collections in her latest period Working In Pain. These paintings have proven her hardest to come to fruition but, unlike before they are coming to fruition. These years have left her juxtaposed between her painting studio and intensive care units. A new type of brain surgery performed by Kansas University Medical for Epilepsy could end her seizures. She waits patiently as testing is performed in hope this new type of surgery could calm her savage brain from uncontrollable seizures and body spasms that have left her body bruised and fractured. Free from seizures would leave her only to fight the neurological illness that leaves her body swamped in pain, spasm and disability; this dream of a future would be life changing.