CHRISTINA SYMES

Christina Symes is an award-winning UK based artist with paintings in international collections. Her practice strives to stimulate the viewers’ awareness of their own environment, specifically their engagement with nature. 
Through her painting, she shares her own experience of liberation through nature. This offers her a form of escapism, peace and solitude, in contrast to complexities modern life can bring. She combines realistic, enhanced and imaginary elements, using bold, amplified colours and divergent tonal values. By incorporating silhouettes of anonymous and isolated figures facing away from the viewer, a sense of mystery and curiosity can be generated. The figures are stripped of identity and personality to direct the viewer’s focus firmly on the figure’s relationship with its surroundings. She aims to reflect a narrative of the mental dialogue between human and nature, and hopes this dialogue enhances the importance of our natural environment, our personal engagement with it and the benefits it can bring to our wellbeing.

 

 

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Education

 

2018-2019

MA Creative Entrepreneurship (First Class Distinction) - University of East Anglia 

2014-2017
BA (Hons) Fine Art: Painting (2:1) - Wimbledon College of Arts 

2013-2014
University of The Arts London Foundation Diploma in Art and Design - Sussex Downs College
 

 

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Courses/Programmes

2017-2018
Clyde & Co Art Award Professional Development Programme - 2017-18, Clyde & Co Law Firm, St Boloph Building, Houndsditch, London

2012
Portfolio Preparation Short Course - Chelsea College of Arts, London
 

Watercolour Intermediate Course - 2012-13, Tunbridge Wells Adult Education Centre, Kent
 

Oil Painting Intermediate Course - 2012-13, Tunbridge Wells Adult Education Centre, Kent

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Solo Exhibitions

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2021
Solo Exhibition - Hydro Hotel, Eastbourne, ongoing
 

2019
Liberation Through Nature - Menier Gallery, 5th-10th August, London.

 

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Group Exhibitions

 

2021
Newhaven Open Call, 11th-26th September, Ship Hotel, Newhaven

2018
Salon des Refusés - Candid Arts Trust, 7th-10th June, Islington, London

Clyde & Co Art Award, London Collection - September 2017 - August 2018, Clyde & Co Law Firm, St Boloph Building, Houndsditch, London

2017
Wimbledon College of Arts Fine Art: Painting Degree Show - Wimbledon College of Arts, 16th-24th June, Wimbledon, London

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109 Nails – Copeland Gallery, 9th-12th March, Peckham, London
 

2016
Creatives Gallery – July - August, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
 

Mind Map – The Gallery on the Corner, 3rd-6th May, Battersea, London

2015
Capsticks Exhibition – Capsticks Law Firm,  2015-2016, Wimbledon, London
 

2014
Foundation Diploma Show - June 2014, Sussex Downs College, Eastbourne

 

 

Awards/Competitions
 

2021

Wildcard Artist - Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year, Eden Project, Cornwall

2020
Prize for Outstanding Performance by a MA Creative Entrepreneurship Student, University of East Anglia, Norwich

2018

Clyde & Co Scholarship Award - Clyde & Co Law Firm, St Boloph Building, Houndsditch, London

Shortlisted: Royal Academy Summer Exhibition - Royal Academy of Arts, London 

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2017
Staff Vote, Clyde & Co Art Award - Clyde & Co Law Firm, St Boloph Building, Houndsditch, London
 

2006

Art Exhibition Award - Roedean School, Brighton 

 

 

Articles

Clyde & Co Art Award Winners Announced:
http://artawards.clydeco.com/art-blog/clyde-co-art-award-winners-announced-auction-launched/ 

Artistic Insight - Christina Kim-Symes: 
http://artawards.clydeco.com/art-blog/artistic-insight-christina-kim-symes/

Wimbledon Alumni Shortlisted for Clyde & Co Art Award:
http://blogs.arts.ac.uk/wimbledon/2017/12/04/10-wimbledon-alumni-shortlisted-for-clyde-co-art-award-2017/

Christina Kim-Symes - Invest Now:
https://newbloodart.com/blog/christina-kim-symes-invest-now/
 

 

 

Notable Presentations of Work

A limited-edition print of her 2016 oil painting titled ‘Estonia – Before the Storm’ was presented to The Most Reverend Urmas Viilma, Archbishop of Estonia, at his visit to the Diocese of Rochester, Kent, in 2017, to mark the 2017 celebration of the special partnership that exists between these two countries churches. The painting is from a series she created during a visit to Haapsalu, Estonia in 2015 and the original currently hangs framed in the House of Commons.