Justine Hounam from London, UK is a mixed-media visual artist whose series of abstract body landscape paintings represent a physical, psychological, and metaphorical skin. Justine is interested in the connection between us, our homes, and the objects within which contain memories of body and identity. Justine paints onto fabric, stretched and secured over found parts or whole furniture. Once removed, akin to a skin pulled from its body, the fabric reveals the outline of the object entombed within.
The contours, cracks and ageing of the furniture are embedded within the paint much like a cast or a print. Often the furniture is displaced, broken or rearranged suggesting conflict/trauma associated violence inside the home. Justine is also interested in the wider use of conflict. Her paintings can be seen as a series of territories viewed from above, flattened and revealed. Justine uses the personal and the domestic environment as a backdrop to question wider notions of society and politics. Hanging on the wall, the paintings are a hybrid of painting and sculpture, a conflict between the two disciplines. Justine’s fascination in form and material stems from her background in architecture and pushes her desire to develop and push the boundaries of techniques of making to produce work.
The materiality of the objects is integral, as they contain memories, subjectivity and personal space, whilst also having the unique ability to display the erosion of time and experience, which get imprinted onto cloth. Hounam sees the material and its idiosyncrasies as symbolic metaphor of skin and scar tissue.
Education
Central St Martins MA Fine Art 2019-2021
University of East London, 1st Class BA (Hons)
BA Fine Art, September 2011 - July 2014
Mary Ward Centre, London
Foundation in Art and Design, 2010-2011 Distinction
University of North London (now Metropolitan University)
BSC Architecture, 1989-1992
Awards
Anthony Gormley Foundation Foundation Award (£12000) September 2019
Art and Design: Practice Research Publication (£2000) May 2014
Exhibitions
Concrete Blue, Group Exhibition at ASC Unit 3, London, 4-11 September 2020
I Promise You, Group Exhibition at Apairy Studio, London 5-8 March 2020
The Denney Edition: Celebrating An Icon Of 20th Century Style
Commission June 2019 – 2021 at Rainham Hall, National Trust
Geography Of Interiors, Group Exhibition at ASC Unit 3, London, 7-9 June 2019
Affirmation, Group Exhibition, Art Number 23, Old Biscuit Factory, London, 15 March
Skins, Solo Exhibition at The Bomb Factory Art Foundation, 24 – 26 2018
T’art, Bones & Pearl Gallery, Group Exhibition, 7 – 9 March 2017
Dark Regards, Ply Gallery, Group Exhibition, 20 – 30 January 2017
Summer Salon, Lubomirov/Angus-Hughes, Group Exhibition, 23 July – 24 August 2016
Trumped, Art Auction, CNB Gallery, Tramshed, March 16
Drying Depot, Trinity Buoy Wharf, 14 April 2016, Group Exhibition with Alexis Harding, Alaena Turner, Daryl Brown, Sophia Starling
Walthamstow Art Trail, 15 Upper Walthamstow Road, 30 May - 14 June 2015
Art Auction, CNB Gallery, Tramshed, 32 Rivington Street, London 28 - 30 April
Remember, Group Exhibition, St Johns, Bethnal Green, London, April 17 - 19 2015
Tondo, Group Exhibition, AVA Building, London 18 - 26 Feb 2015
Top Draw, Group Exhibition, Olympia, 14 - 16 September 2015
Group Exhibition, Queens Wood, N10, August 2014
Group Exhibition, AVA Building, London, 29 - 1 June 2014
Time, Art Auction, CNB Gallery, Tramshed, 32 Rivington Street, London March 2014
Forms Of Subversion, Group Exhibition, Asylum Chapel, Peckham, London, 7 - 9 March 2014
Group Exhibition, AVA Gallery, Docklands 4 - 6 February 2014
Light And Weight, Group Exhibition, Rag Factory, Brick Lane, London, 22 - 25 November 2013
Group Exhibition, AVA Gallery, UEL, Docklands 29 October 2013
Portlanders, Group Exhibition, AVA Gallery, UEL, Docklands Campus 2 - 9 October 2013
Innoninate, Group Exhibition, 5th Base Gallery, Brick Lane, London 6 - 7 May 2013
2nd Year Show, UEL, Docklands 7 - 12 June 2013
Grace of London, Mount Street Gallery, London 11 - 14 June
Transformation, Our Space Gallery, June 27 2012 until August 31 2012
UEL Olympics Print Exhibition, FSA, Canary Wharf, 21 May 2012