Ruth Calland
Ruth Calland is a painter, performer, curator and Jungian analyst. She has a special interest in alchemy and the emergence of the new, as part of the processes of creativity, healing, decolonisation and social change.
Ruth is genderfluid and neurodivergent, areas which she thinks about in terms of the alchemical state of coniunctio: the collision of complementaries (left brain/right brain, masc/femme) or a bridge between them, in synergetic relationship. Her new painting series ‘Pin Ups’ celebrates and explores transgender and non-binary expression. Her paintings from this series are representations of gender-expansive people that she relates to and admires – for their courage, creativity, compassion and inventiveness. She aims to amplify their voices and self expression through referencing imagery found on social media platforms such as Tiktok, often using stills from videos, selecting moments that convey a combination of vulnerability, power, and centredness.
The format is based loosely on the popstar pin up pages in the ‘Jackie’ magazine of the 1970’s, where idols such as Marc Bolan and David Bowie were seen to play around with gender variance. Like the Jackie pin ups, these images are framed with sweet strong colours, emphasising that the person inside deserves to be looked at, has something to offer, is a contemporary idol in their own way.
The online creators she connects with most are those who use natural settings for their content, elemental places with plants and wildlife. This emphasises that what used to be thought of as ‘natural’ is currently in the process of being redefined by gender expansive practices: what Ruth thinks of as the ‘New Natural’ is about connection with the authentic self.
Biography
Ruth Calland lives and paints in London. She has been a finalist in the 2024 Exeter Open, the 2023 Barbican Arts Group Open, the New Contemporaries and the Marmite Prize for Painting. She is a prize-winner of the CGP London Annual Open, and has shown widely including at Transition Gallery, Studio 1.1, Folkestone Triennial, Vestry House Museum and Flowers Gallery, and curated shows at APT, Walthamstow Wetlands, and Kings Lynn Arts Centre. She was included in Made In Britain, 80 Painters of the 1st Century, at Yantai Museum and touring to Nanjing and Tianjin in China in 2017, and Gdansk, Poland in 2019.
She has been a Boise Scholar, a Rome Scholar runner up, and won a Fellowship in Painting at GLOSCAT, Cheltenham. She is a recipient of grants from The Arts Council, The Henry Moore Foundation, and the London Borough of Culture 2019, amongst others. She is currently working towards solo shows at 20:21 Arts Centre in Lincolnshire, and Hastings Museum & Art Gallery.
