Victoria Cantons probes the human condition, exploring the psychological and emotional boundaries that shape our relationships with ourselves and others. At the core of her multidisciplinary practice lies an understanding of identity as multifaceted and constantly evolving. Cantons reflects on themes of femininity and gender while engaging with the universal complexities of being human.

 

Cantons’ work inhabits the space between abstraction and figuration, varying between naturalistic depictions and expressive gestures with fluid brushwork, often with inscribed text. Drawing from an extensive archive of images, she weaves self-portraits, images of family and friends, flowers, still-life objects, and lyrical ruminations into her compositions. In Untitled (The end of longing), a vivid rendering of lemons embodies sensuousness, transience and time’s passage. Echoing 17th-century Vanitas traditions, lemons symbolise life’s sweetness and bitterness, beauty and impermanence. Through her work, Cantons resists absolutes: ‘Nothing is fixed. Everything is in flux, and aanything can change it.’
 

Recent solo exhibitions include ‘If Only, Time Were Ours To Spend, Again’ at Kunstverein [Art Association] Dresden (2023) ; ‘What Birds Plunge Through Is Not The Intimate Space’ at Guts Gallery, London (2023) and ‘People Trust People Who Look Like Them’ at Flowers Gallery, London (2022). Selected group exhibitions include ‘There are other skies’ at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Phoenix (2025); ‘Transfeminisms (Fragile Archives)’ at Mimosa House, London (2024) ; ‘Drawing Biennial’ at Drawing Room, London (2024) ;‘The Arcadian Dream’ at SPURS Gallery, Beijing (2024); ‘Present Tense’ at Hauser & Wirth, Somerset (2024) and ‘The Cult of Beauty’ at Wellcome Collection, London (2023).