Memento by British female artist, Bay Backner, is a large original artwork created with oil paints and embroidery.
Bay Backner (Burnley, UK, 1981) is a painter-embroiderer working in oil paint and thread on canvas. She studied at The Ruskin School of Art (Life Drawing, 2002) and Central Saint Martins, UAL (Printmaking, 2006; Textiles, 2007). Her work explores ideas about identity, the self and the subconscious mind. Bay works from her studio in Valencia, Spain. She is the current artist in residence at The British School of Valencia. She exhibits nationally and internationally, and is represented by London’s Runway Gallery in the UK.
Backner graduated in Physics from Oxford University. However, this identified more with philosophy and metaphysics than contemporary science. Poet Muriel Rukeyser’s idea that “the universe is made of stories, not of atoms” profoundly resonated with her. This began her path towards becoming a visual artist.
Bay spent seven years studying the techniques of the Renaissance painters. She developed a method of oil painting which blends these Renaissance techniques with a style and palette drawn from today’s consumer media. The power of consumer media over our identities is questioned throughout her work.
Bay speaks of Memento and her other works
I paint large-scale oil paintings and hand-embroider them to explore ideas about the self. My work speaks about our identities and how they are subconsciously shaped by our experiences. I am especially interested in our deepest, hidden selves.
The subjects of my paintings often contrast our internal realities with externally-imposed identities. For example, in my ongoing “Flower Women” series, I compare our culture´s identification of women as “flowers” with our physical, embodied selves.
The need to embroider my paintings comes from the connection I see between external expectations and our subconscious minds. The hand-embroidery process is physical, almost violent. I use pliers and brute force to pierce the canvas. The embroidered geometries conceal and impose order on the paintings, and yet they make them complete.
Firstly, view the full collection of available artworks by Bay Backner.
Secondly, each artist on Runway Gallery is asked to share their Little Black Book of their hometown. This is Bay’s – Valencia.
In conclusion, Bay Backner is one Runway Artist to watch in 2021.