Martha Zmpounou
BA, Central St Martins.
Awards:
St. Cuthbert’s Mill Watercolour Prize (winner), Bath Society of Artists, UK
Cass Art Prize, (Winner), Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, UK
Ashurst Emerging Artist Award (shortlisted/selected for exhibition), UK
Jerwood Drawing Prize (shortlisted/selected for exhibition), London, UK
Secret Art Prize (runner up/selected for exhibition), London UK
Aesthetica Art Prize, 2012, 2013 and 2014 (long listed), UK
EWAAC Art Award for excellence in Drawing, UK, (winner), London, UK
The De Laszlo Foundation Award for Excellence in Portrait Painting (winner),
The Royal Society of Portrait Painters, London, UK
Best Art and Design students of the University of the Arts London at the Victoria and Albert Museum (shortlisted), London, UK
Martha was part of Tart's exhibition "Power to Emotions". 2022
Zmpounou's work revolves around the idea of the human figure and portrait as a space of expression and exposure.
It is a mode of work that embraces accidental bleeds, unfinished or seemingly underdeveloped areas, next to others meticulously developed in detail. This results in a fragile dynamic balance between abstraction and representation, one which seeks to capture the tonal and morphological particularities of a sitter’s skin or facial characteristics, and in essence, their very self.
“I see the human body as a fragmented yet multifaceted entity, an outcome of a process of layering".
