Chanel Vegas
Chanel Vegas
Chanel Vegas, Scrambled & This Little Piggy, 2025, pen, acrylic and oil sticks on a hospital gown. Photography by Tessa Hallmann.
This artwork is an expressive abstract painting on stretched NHS gown fabric, a material chosen for its dual connotations of the domestic and the clinical. The fabric’s texture subtly influences the composition, reinforcing themes of vulnerability, care, and institutional presence. The gestural strokes of bold blue and earthy red paint interact dynamically, creating a sense of tension and movement. Through abstraction, the work distorts familiar forms, challenging perceptions of the body and its relationship to the surrounding environment. The use of non-traditional materials enhances the surreal quality of the piece, inviting viewers to explore the liminal spaces between illness, comfort, and transformation.
Roderic Barrett, Silences II, 1967, oil on canvas, Beecroft Art Collection. Photography by Tessa Hallmann.
The central concept revolves around the theme of how everyday objects—particularly fabric—can embody complex emotional and physical states, such as comfort, care, and even illness. And this notion of what does silence mean?
Biography
Chanel Vegas is a London-born artist and graduate of Goldsmiths University. As a working-class artist and a person of color, she represents a voice that is increasingly rare in today’s art world. Notably, she was the first graduate to receive the Artist Award from Goldsmiths and has just completed a writing residency with Montez Press publishers.
Chanel's practice centres on transforming surfaces through sound and acts of destruction, blending physicality with conceptual depth. Her performative work delves into the complexities of identity, exploring the internal divide, the "other side," and the darkness that can consume us. Using spoken word and poetry, she breathes life into her sculptural paintings, creating a powerful interplay between text, performance, and form.
Vegas’ central concept for this show revolves around the theme of how everyday objects—particularly fabric—can embody complex emotional and physical states, such as comfort, care, and even illness. The primary medium will be stretched NHS gown fabric, chosen specifically for its connotations of both the domestic and the clinical. This fabric is not only familiar but is also evocative of a certain vulnerability, as it is often associated with hospital environments. In this sense, it becomes a canvas that embodies the intersection of personal care and the institutional world. The fabric will serve as the base for my painting, with its texture and appearance directly influenced by the balancing act in Barrets’ artwork Silences II - and in making something beautiful out of a tragedy and not to suffer in silence.