(Photo by Rod Higginson: Zoe Snape, The Last Party In The World, HATCH, East Quay, Watchet, Somerset, 15th April 2023)
Zoe Snape is a visual artist, living and working in West Somerset, UK.
She works at her permanent studio at the East Quay art centre directly beside the sea in Watchet, where she is a member of the East Quay Artists group. Zoe is also a Somerset Art Works member. She has a BA (Hons) in Fine Art & Art History from Goldsmiths, University of London, and has exhibited in London, Sheffield and Somerset. Zoe is a specialist in fine art photography, with a fifteen-year-long career working in galleries and auction houses such as Christie's, Bloomsbury Auctions and The Photographers' Gallery, London.
RECENT EXHIBITIONS
'In Between' Open Studios, East Quay, Watchet, Somerset 6th - 14th May 2023
Group Show The Titan Arcadia Gallery, The Quay, Coal Orchard, Taunton, TA1 1FB.
April - May 2023
'The Last Party In The World' HATCH, East Quay, Watchet, Somerset, 15th April 2023
'Sanctuary' Somerset Art Works, Ilminster Arts Centre, 35 East Street, Ilminster, Somerset,
TA19 0AN 1st - 26th November 2022
‘Sanctuary’ Somerset Art Weeks, East Quay, Somerset, 24th September - 9th October 2022
’Fifty Bees’ ACE Arts, Market Place, Somerton, Somerset, TA11 7NB, 9th April -14th May 2022
’Somerset Art Exhibition’ National Trust, Fyne Court, Bridgwater, TA5 2EQ. May - June 2021
‘Miniatures’ Fronteer Gallery, 18 Exchange Street, Sheffield, S2 5TS. 2nd - 16th October 2021
Somerset Art Weeks, East Quay, Somerset TA23 0AQ, 23rd September - 8th October 2021
PRACTICE
Zoe employs painting, drawing, collage, photography, and moving images to explore
BREATH
BREATHING
BUBBLES
Her artworks are conversations about the nature of control, confinement, freedom, and flow.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I’m a Somerset-based artist, interested in the connection between mental health and the Climate Emergency. I’m currently exploring Agoraphobia through the study of fluid dynamics. An anxiety disorder that causes an intense fear of becoming overwhelmed or unable to escape, Agoraphobia leads sufferers to avoid unfamiliar situations such as large open or crowded areas. I’m a chronic asthmatic who spent time in oxygen tents as a child, and I see similarities in this formative experience to recent studies of poor air quality having a negative impact on mental health.
My recent experimental drawings in paint explore the power of breathing exercises to manage such psychological states. Inspired by philosopher Peter Sloterdijk’s spatial theory in ‘Spheres I-III, 1998, 1999, 2004’, my bubble drawings explore my sense of self (bubble), within the world (globe) and plurality (foam) through metered creative playfulness and self-control.
Transience is the theme of all my art.
Tumbling torrents of rivers. Enveloping abstract paintings. Tension and contradiction in spliced photomontages of seascapes. Videos experiment with raindrop races or drips creeping into domestic spaces. Drip and bubble drawings literally play with surface tension, expectation, control and accident.
STUDIO
Scroll to the bottom of this website to follow Zoe on social media and view her performance and video work.
Zoe is happy to take on commissions, arrange framing and free postage within the UK through her contact page.
She also runs practical art workshops for adults and children from her studio. Please contact her for class timetables.
All artwork on this website and social media is subject to ⓒ Zoe Snape 2023