Victoria Miro is delighted to present an exhibition of new paintings by Celia Paul, in Venice.
November 7 –December 12, 2026
The exhibition coincides with the publication of a new book by the artist, Objects of Desire: An Artist in Venice, a painter’s memoir of obsession, loss and creation during a residency in Venice. The pivotal subject of both the book and the exhibition is Giorgione’s La Tempesta (1503–1504), on view in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, which interested Paul because of the dynamic between the figure of a man and a breastfeeding woman. Returning to Giorgione’s painting, Paul has created a new painting, Objects of Desire (after Giorgione), 2026, further exploring the interaction of figures within, the artist explains, ‘the context of the natural forces which surround and control them.’
Guiding forces within and beyond the body are foregrounded in further works, such as Moon Influencing Waves, 2026, a waterscape of poignant luminosity. The sea is a recurring motif in Paul’s art; constant yet constantly changing, its restless surface might be considered as something that evades possession or refuses to be fixed as a subject. Commenting about this work, Paul notes, ‘It has always seemed very mysterious to me that the moon is the invisible magnet drawing up waves out of still water. Just as with the moon and water, the unseen charisma passing between people who are attracted to each other, seems mysterious.’
Illuminated elsewhere are elusive pressures of feeling and alignments of intellect or passion, and how they shape our relationships with others or even versions of ourselves across time. Gwen John (1876–1939) has long been a tutelary spirit for Paul, and she has drawn fruitful comparisons between their lives: in their shared resolve to protect the sources of their creativity; their fierce commitment to painting; and the ways in which their associations with older male artists affected the public’s reception of their work.
Tramonto: Watching Painter, 2026, seems especially attuned to cross-currents of time and feeling, imbuing a retrospective air with the ardour of a sunset. Based on a depiction of Paul by Lucian Freud in his painting Painter and Model, 1986–1987, which in turn carries echoes the composition of Giorgione’s La Tempesta, in this painting Paul depicts herself alone amid the embers of a setting sun. She comments, ‘Both Freud’s and Giorgione’s paintings are about looking and being looked at.