Vanessa Raw (b. 1984)

Vanessa Raw earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Loughborough University in 2004, but it would take more than a decade before she fully embraced a career as an artist. For 11 years she competed internationally as a professional triathlete, only hanging up her running shoes and parking her bicycle in 2016. It was then that she rediscovered her passion for painting.

Portraiture has always been at the core of Raw’s artistry, but in 2022, she shifted from traditional portraiture to painting intimate scenes of women – often naked – languishing among nature and surrounded by fauna. (The painting EKCART Asia owns reflects this district aesthetic.) Her work is marked by a sensuous, dreamlike fluidity that suggests imaginary realms or altered states of consciousness. That same year, Raw was selected for a residency at Tracey Emin’s TKE Studios in Margate.

Raw’s works were exhibited at Frieze London in 2023 and at Carl Freedman Gallery for her first solo show in 2024. Her work has also been shown in Berlin.