About Victoria Cantons

Victoria Cantons is a BA Painting graduate of Wimbledon College of Arts, UAL, (2017) and Turps Art School (2018). She received the Felix Slade Scholarship in 2018, and will complete her MFA in Painting at Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, in 2021. She previously studied Drama for the Stage and Screen at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA South). Cantons lives and works in London, and her work is held in private collections in Canada, China, Mexico, France, UK, USA, Singapore and Spain. Most recently, she initiated and curated the Slade Masters Showcase at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, in 2020, and went on to curate MA/MFA Slade graduates in London Grads Now. at Saatchi Gallery, London, in the same year. 

Cantons is a cross-disciplinary artist producing work in various media including painting, photography, drawing, film and sculpture. Her work is informed by a multicultural upbringing and a background in photography and theatre, and has autobiographical, confessional and political undercurrents, which question the limitations and stigma on personal freedom and individuals’ boundaries. Her works explore ideas about time, history and reality; sociopolitical ideas and contemporary imagery are juxtaposed with reappropriated elements from the Old Masters, generating artworks that include a vandalisation of old painting techniques. 

In these works, she aims to recontextualise the female gaze in historical paintings made by male artists. Cantons has stated that although she is transgender and a feminist, she does not categorise herself as a transgender or feminist artist. However, all of these elements filter into the development of her art, creating work that explores identity and representation. 

Education

MFA Painting, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, 2018 - 21

Painters Studio Programme, Turps Art School, London, 2017 - 18

BA (Hons) Fine Art: Painting, Wimbledon College of Arts, UAL, 2014 - 17

Summer Foundation Course, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL - 2013

Drama Studies, Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA South), London, 1995 - 97

Prizes and Awards

Felix Slade Scholarship, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL - 2018

Solo Exhibitions

It's 2020 FFS: Champagne tastes on beer money, Guts Gallery, London - 2020

Give Me Your Hand So That I May Not Be Alone, 48 Woodstock Road, London - 2018

Group Exhibitions

New Futures Digital: Slade, Kovet.art Gallery, London - 2021

PAPA RAGAZZE, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles - 2020

Life on Venus, The Tub, London/Online - 2020

the tales we tell ourselves, Purslane Gallery, London/Online - 2020

TwentyTwenty Women, Artistellar Gallery, London/Online - 2020

A Rudimentary Education, Art Lacuna, London - 2020

RA Summer (Winter) Show, Royal Academy of Art, London - 2020

LONDON GRADS NOW., Saatchi Gallery, London - 2020

RCA x Slade Graduate Fine Art Showcase, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London - 2020

Begin Again, Guts Gallery, London - 2020

Tomorrow: London, White Cube Gallery, London - 2020

Trans-Identity: Body, Soul and Time, NoSpace Organisation, online show via instagram & NoSpace WeChat Official - 2020

When Shit Hits the Fan, Guts Gallery, London - 2020

Little Originals exhibition, Dock Street Studios, Dundee - 2019

Annual Open Exhibition 2019, The South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts @ Exeter Castle, Devon - 2019

Beautiful China, Beautiful World: Golden Era of China-UK, China Pictorial & UK-China Photography Association @ Central Hall Westminster, London and Charing Cross Library, London - 2019

On the Mountain We Stay, supported by No Space in Zichuan district, Zibo city, Shandong province, China - 2019

AIR Open 2019, AIR Gallery, Manchester - 2019

RA Summer Show, Royal Academy, London - 2019

Change, Hundred Years Gallery, London - 2019

Micro, AIR Gallery, Manchester - 2019

TROPE, Serf, Leeds - 2019

LOVE, Slade School of Art (UCL), London - 2019

Pulling Teeth, ASC Gallery, London - 2019

Turps Studio Painters, Paul Stolper, London - 2018

Set 24, The Art Academy, London – 2018

CHAIN, The Library of China University of Mining & Technology, Beijing - 2018

24th edition of Artist of the day: Day Nine, Flowers Gallery, London - 2018

Beijing Summer Exhibition 18, NL Gallery, Beijing- 2018

Picnic, Subsidiary Projects, London - 2018

Bring me my cloak, LVP House, London - 2017

Glutted: 7 Artists 24 Hours, 392 Grove Green Road, London Wimbledon College Undergraduate Summer Show, UAL, London - 2017

Landscapes of the Mind & Earth, Conference Centre, St Pancras Hospital, London - 2017

Currents of Identity, The Crypt Gallery, St Pancras Church, London - 2017

To Be Continued...Gallery of the College of Arts, Huabei University of Science & Technology Tangshan, China - 2017

109 Nails, Copeland Park, London - 2017

8th Loudest Whispers, Conference Centre, St Pancras Hospital, London - 2017

Exhibit Here Summer Exhibition, Menier Gallery, London - 2016

It's A Pleasure, 83 Greyhound Lane, London - 2016

Interrogating The Soul, SAFEHOUSE 1, London - 2015

Contemporary Art, Forme Trinity @ This Is Art Gallery, London - 2015

Summer Edit, Moreton Gallery, Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire - 2014

Zhe:[noun} Undefined, Soho Theatre, London 4th Loudest Whispers, Conference Centre, St Pancras Hospital, London - 2013

Curation

New Futures Digital: Slade, Kovet.art Gallery, London - 2021

LONDON GRADS NOW. ("Slade Room"), Saatchi Gallery, London - 2020

RCA x Slade Graduate Fine Art Showcase, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London - 2020

Trans-Identity: Body, Soul and Time (editor of show text; research advisor to show curator and text's author Ting Deng), group show online organised by NoSpace Organisation - 2020

100 Carat Diamond (co-curator), Artist: Yang Xu, Artworks Project Space, London - 2020

Landscapes of the Mind & Earth (co-curator), Group show, Conference Centre Gallery, St Pancras Hospital, London - 2017