Practice in Place: Alexis Soul-Gray
Alexis Soul-Gray shares her experience of living and working as an artist in Devon.
Tell us about you and your practice
I am an artist, mother and occasional curator based in one of the towns on the edge of Dartmoor. Originally from Essex, I spent many years studying and living in London. I have also lived briefly in Oxfordshire and Cornwall, followed by five years in Birmingham, before settling in Devon in 2016. I have worked as an educator throughout my career, although less so in the last five years as my practice has become full-time. I studied at Central Saint Martins and Camberwell, then at The Royal Drawing School, and more recently returned as a mature student to complete an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art.
I work across painting, drawing, printmaking and collage to interrogate the instability of found images, their relationship to the construction of memory, and the affective residues of personal and collective histories. I draw on vernacular photography, often sourced through auction sites, charity shops and recycling centres. I am particularly drawn to the unlikely survival of these images, especially in their final state, sold for almost nothing and searching for new ownership. I am interested in how, as objects, they have travelled and been discarded multiple times, yet have also endured through acts of care. They are not in landfill skips but placed on shelves, waiting. The responsibility of ownership for these non-digitised personal archives has fascinated me for a long time. I also work with everyday cultural detritus, including advertising imagery, catalogues, children’s illustrations, knitting patterns and encyclopaedias.
I appropriate and reconfigure these fragmentary bodies, extracting gestures and motifs into complex, stage-like pictorial environments. Within these constructed spaces, figures operate as surrogates, hybrids and stand-ins, occupying ambiguous positions between performance and authenticity, presence and erasure.
My methodology is grounded in processes of accumulation, disruption and revision. Physical and painterly collage strategies, drawing, cutting, layering, projection, staining and erasure enable the compression of multiple temporalities, allowing past and present to coexist within densely stratified tableaux. Through this materially contingent process, images are destabilised and re-authored, producing speculative narratives that resist fixed interpretation and foreground the fragment as a critical site of meaning-making.
Recurring characters and motifs function as affective carriers through which I examine grief, substitution, attachment, and the contradictions embedded within gendered and relational identities, including those of mother, daughter, woman and artist. Painting operates as a heterotopic container in which disparate histories and visual languages collide, and where figuration and abstraction oscillate to test the limits of representation, subjectivity and embodiment.
I am particularly invested in the ‘fault line’ or join between pictorial elements; the site at which difference is negotiated and new relationships emerge. Here, collage becomes a strategy not only of formal construction but also of critical inquiry, enabling the continual reconfiguration of subjectivity as partial, unstable and contingent.
My paintings and works on paper are often developed over multiple years, undergoing constant revision and shifts in state. Works that have travelled internationally and been exhibited have, at times, been entirely reworked upon their return to the studio. By sustaining a condition of perpetual revision, my work foregrounds vulnerability, resonance and disquiet, positioning painting as a performative space in which memory, fiction and lived experience are continually reimagined and contested.
What are the great art spaces and organisations you love to visit?
My local area has some excellent spaces running thoughtful and ambitious programmes. Southcombe Barn & Gallery in Widecombe-in-the-Moor offers both exhibitions and artist residencies, importantly supporting artist mothers who need to bring their families in order to access such opportunities. Vashti Cassinelli and Dr Ella S Mills run Casinelli Mills, a curatorial partnership fostering a more holistic working partnership with artists. Field System in Ashburton has a very active programme; there is always something original and intriguing happening there, and I have seen some very strong exhibitions.
Slightly further afield, Exeter Phoenix is a space I have had the pleasure of working with. Curator Matt Burrows leads an incredible programme, and we are very fortunate to have this in the South West. I also admire KARST in Plymouth, Ben Borthwick has developed a strong programme. I had a studio there briefly and valued the sense of community, but it was ultimately too far for me and didn’t offer enough space.
I am also a supporter of the University of the Arts Plymouth. I began an MA there just before Covid and have fond memories of my time on the course, then led by Steven Paige. It is an accessible university environment with excellent facilities, and the continued presence of Mirror Gallery is a real asset; I have seen some fantastic exhibitions there.
When visiting Cornwall, I always enjoy Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange. In the opposite direction, Spike Island and Arnolfini in Bristol are important spaces. I often find myself in Bruton, having had a solo exhibition at Bo Lee & Workman in 2025, and I value Hauser & Wirth Somerset greatly, it is a privilege to have such a space nearby. I have also visited East Quay Watchet multiple times; it is an inspiring place with an outstanding exhibition programme. I am very honoured to be working with them in 2027—the curators George Harwood Smith and Millie Laing-Tate, alongside Director Jess Prendergrast, are a joy to work with.
What resources or facilities are there that you (can) access?
This is something I find challenging. My studio is based in Totnes, and I have very little community around me there. I wish there were more artist studios in South Devon, it is much needed. I would also value regular access to a print room. I have used Double Elephant at Exeter Phoenix, but it would be beneficial to have something closer.
Cheerlead for your peers! Who would you like to shout about?
Across the UK I have many artist, writer and curator friends I could mention, but I will focus on those in the South West otherwise the list is far too long! Artist Will Cruickshank, a close friend with a studio just outside Totnes, is someone I greatly admire. We meet regularly to discuss our work and the wider challenges of the art world. I am also the proud owner of one of his works, the most I have ever spent on an artwork, but absolutely worth it, I love living with it. His studio is an enchanting space, and his commitment to his practice is exceptional.
Ben Risk is another local painter whose work reflects a strong relationship to the Devon landscape. I have several of his works in my home. We first met in Bristol before he moved to this area, and he still maintains strong connections there.
Jane Cabrera, a painter and well-known children’s author, has become a friend in recent years, and it has been wonderful to see her return to painting. Hannah Murtgatroyd, based in Bath, is one of the most compelling painters working today. We have grown close over the past couple of years, and our conversations about practice are always deeply insightful… so much so that I often feel I should be taking notes!
Another good friend is Painter Hannah Turner-Duffin who is from Somerset and has strong links to Bristol, she is currently based in Brittany, France but also lives and works at times in Berlin teaching at Burnt Sienna Art School founded by our mutual friend Louise Thomas. Hannah and I recently did the Dumfries House family residency in Scotland, awarded by The Royal Drawing School.
I have also had the privilege of working with several writers in the South West. Art historian and curator Gemma Blackshaw, who taught me at the RCA, has been both a mentor and a collaborator, writing two essays for exhibitions at Wetterling Gallery in Stockholm and Bel Ami in Los Angeles. Lizzie Lloyd, who teaches at UWE, wrote a fantastic essay for a recent exhibition at William Hine Gallery in London. Most recently, I collaborated with Catherine McCormack, based near Bath, who contributed an essay for my latest solo exhibition at Eiklid Rusten in Oslo.
Where do you make your work?
I work across two studio spaces out of necessity, as I have one of my children at home much of the time. Two years ago, I bought a house for the first time, and it was essential that it included space for a home studio, ensuring I could work consistently when caring responsibilities limited access to my larger studio in Totnes.
I am still navigating the complexities of maintaining two spaces, both mentally and practically, particularly in managing materials across both. Initially, I intended the home studio to be for drawing only, but my desire to work in oils has led me to paint in both locations. Scale is now the main distinction: larger works are made in Totnes, where I am also currently building an installation, while works made at home tend to be under 120 cm.
I have come to value working at home. Despite the regular interruptions of domestic life and parenting, it is a peaceful environment, and this flux aligns closely with a practice shaped by fourteen years of motherhood.
What opportunities are there for artists in your area?
I am currently less engaged with local activity due to a busy exhibition schedule. A key moment for me in the past however was a residency that I was given by Matt Burrows at Exeter Phoenix. This was a significant opportunity, where I created work in the main gallery space. The gallery remained open to the public during this time, allowing for direct engagement and conversation with visitors.
This experience later led to an exhibition and my first public talk, which I initially found daunting but has since become a regular and rewarding part of my practice, something I credit to Matt’s encouragement.
What or who helps you maintain your practice?
My family. My partner is incredibly supportive, and without him my situation would look very different. My daughters are my greatest supporters and most honest critics. I am also deeply influenced by my mother, who died in 2006 when I was 25. Her belief in me remains a constant presence, and I feel her encouragement still. I made a promise to her before she died that I would never give up being an artist, and I intend to keep that promise.
What else would you love VASW’s audiences to know about where you live and work as an artist?
I will answer this more in terms of how I work rather than where. If you are a parent trying to balance practice and care, you are not alone. I recently co-curated an exhibition with Kelly Jessiman in Hastings at Amici Art, bringing together artist mothers with significant caring responsibilities. There are many barriers for parent artists, often more so for women.
When my children were very young, I worked primarily in sketchbooks. At the time, I felt this was a limitation, but I now see it as a valuable and adaptive approach. Maintaining a practice in any form matters whether or not you have a studio or dedicated time, you are still an artist.
How can people find out more about your work?
