Interference

By Rebecca Scott

Exhibition runs: 5 September to 17 October 2026
Opening Preview: Friday 4 September, 6-8pm

The idea behind these paintings developed through a series of Vogue magazines that I began to manipulate and “interfere” with.

The first of these magazines, made in 2015, I erased all the text from the pages, using a heavy marker pen. By the third iteration, again using marker pens, I began stripping away the fashion, removing the outfits to create new nude figures. This interference was my reaction to and rebellion against the perfect ideal of beauty, prescribed throughout the pages. These actions were also deliberately puerile; an act of sabotage directed at the sophisticated, highly constructed, and photoshopped image of beauty, promoted by the fashion industry. The root of this work inspired by feminist writing, particularly The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women by Naomi Wolf.

In this exhibition, an original defaced Vogue magazine is on display, alongside a screen that allows the viewer to swipe through its pages. Several of these altered pages became the starting point for my paintings in the Vogue series. A more recent development to these paintings includes the addition of text. It originally began with a scribble; painted across the image, therefore disrupting the viewer’s initial reading of the work. The text varies in subject, using paragraphs drawn from The Sport of Nature by Nadine Gordimer and more recently I have been looking at poetry written by my late mother. The text disrupts the viewer even more, ensuring that instead of looking past the scribble, they pause to read the painted words – maybe even before viewing what is on the canvas behind.

About the artist

Born in Cumbria, Rebecca Scott gained a BA in Fine Art (Painting) from Chelsea School of Art, and an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, London. Scott has work in private and public collections nationally and internationally, and has exhibited in London, Cumbria, Spain, France, Germany, Sweden, and Norway. In 2019, she was a finalist for Cumbria Life’s Visual Artist of the Year award.

She currently lives and works between London and Cumbria, and is Co-Founder of Cross Lane Projects, an independent art space in Kendal.

“I tend to work in series, and retrospectively can see a biographical aspect to my oeuvre; the topics I chose to respond to, have often been meaningful in a personal sense, playing out in reaction to the situations I have found myself in”.

‘The language of choice is painting’. Scott uses genres of paintings as a metaphor, previously working through areas as diverse as nudes, flowers, still life, and figurative genres. Her large extensive body of works diverts into knitted works – which are an antithesis of painting and an acknowledgement of the feminist dialogue which is an important aspect to her thought process.

Working from photographs, calendars, catalogues, and magazines, Scott is drawn to aspects of private manifestations and public representations of female desire. Her work is representational and takes inspiration from Andy Warhol, Malcolm Morely, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Winifred Nicholson, and Georgia O’Keefe.

Gallery Hours:

Thursday: 12-5pm
Friday: 12-5pm
Saturday: 12-5pm

All images copyright the artist.

VESTRY ST. PRESENTS
SUZY WILLEY

British Art Fair 2026

Saatchi Gallery, London

Presenting British art since 1988, British Art Fair is the UK’s only fair dedicated exclusively to Modern and Contemporary British Art. Set within the iconic Saatchi Gallery in the heart of London’s vibrant Chelsea, British Art Fair brings together leading specialist dealers, exceptional works across a wide range of price points, and a setting that makes discovering and collecting art feel informed and rewarding. The Fair offers visitors the opportunity to explore and collect paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography, prints, and ceramics from Britain’s most celebrated artists, alongside a curated programme of events and conversations.

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‘Each painting starts with a well-known, humorous cartoon image, and the transformation that takes place in the re-making of a throw-away image when it’s painted with thick oil paint. The subject matter becomes as much about the painting itself as any image that is present.

This process has become a long-running dialogue and although the concerns around contemporary painting are the same, there is, in recent paintings a greater emphasis on pattern/marks. This has allowed for a freer more intuitive approach to the handling of even thicker paint. The speech bubbles have taken on greater significance emphasizing the cartoon origin but are removed from any original narrative and sometimes illegible, again returning me to the making and humour at the same time.

Recent work, in this series, has more abstract elements and involves layering, scraping and repainting. The image comes and goes in a to-ing and fro-ing between ‘painting’ and the cartoon image. Eventually these disparate elements must come to some kind of unity and make something new and surprising to me’.

– Suzy Willey
September 2026

Suzy Willey (b. 1961 UK) studied at Bath Academy of Art, UK, followed by an MA at Goldsmiths College, London. Her works have been featured in exhibitions nationally and internationally, including John Moores, Walker Art Gallery, Dorothy Golden Gallery, Santa Monica; The Royal Academy Summer Show, Royal Academy of Scotland, Edinburgh, Connaught Brown, Albermarle Street, London and recently Cross Lane Projects in Kendal amongst many others.

Selected exhibitions include The Story of Life, Public Land Gallery, Sacramento, California, USA (2024); Strange Gaze: Surrealism at Cross Lane Projects, Cross Lane Projects, Kendal, UK (2024); High on Hope, Cross Lane Projects, Kendal, UK (2022); Hello, Hello: A Duologue Exhibition in The Parlour Room, curated by Agnes Poitevin-Navarre, London (2021); Hidden Gems, Gallery at Home, Usk (2021); Take Your Conscience to the Pawnshop, Terrace Gallery at William the Fourth, London (2020); Grit, Freelands Foundation, London (2020); Roisin Fogarty and Suzy Willey, Turps Gallery, London (2017); Stuff, Connaught Brown, London (1996); Marmite Prize for Painting Show, Block 336, London and Highlands Gallery, Drogheda (2016); England’s Glory, Cork St, London (1996); A Room of One’s Own, Museum of Women’s Art, London (1995); Sense and Sensuality, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (1993); Paintings From London, Dorothy Goldeen Gallery, Santa Monica (1993); Paintings Connaught Brown, London (1993/4).