The Artsy Vanguard 2020: Lindsey Mendick
Lindsey Mendick
B. 1987, London. Lives and works in London.
Lindsey Mendick, The Spectre at the Feast, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.
Lindsey Mendick’s capacity for grotesquerie is expansive. Her world is one of heavily discounted grocery-store sausages and towers of fast-food sushi; of purple tentacles emerging from a discarded pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream; of vases made from severed feet, covered in bug bites and blisters, all played out in glistening ceramics.
This cultivated tension between the beautiful and deformed pervades the Royal College of Art graduate’s work thematically, too. Under the name Proudick, she creates playful collaborative work with artist and friend Paloma Proudfoot. The duo had a 2018 exhibition at Hannah Barry Gallery that juxtaposed the mythos of ancient Greece with the banality of modern life.
More recently, at the start of 2020, Mendick staged “The Yellow Wallpaper” at Eastside Projects, blending the fictional and autobiographical in a brilliant look at women’s mental health. And “Rot,” her summer online exhibition at Cooke Latham Gallery, explored the gross and engrossing sides of decomposition, with triptychs that transition from fresh to revolting. Mendick’s upcoming solo show at the Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, opening this September, is pitched as a “vampiric love story”—a pulpy horror flick humorously rendered in stained glass, paint, and ceramics.
Along with increasing gallery presence, including shows in Austin, Brussels, Moscow, and Edinburgh, Mendick was shortlisted for the 2021 Future Generation Art Prize. Previously, she was awarded the 2018 Alexandra Reinhardt Memorial Award, and won commissions at both Normanby Hall and Washington Old Hall in the north of England.
With her thematic and visual paradoxes, Mendick offers a reflection of and respite from the ugliness that exists around us.
The Artsy Vanguard 2020
The Artsy Vanguard 2020 is our annual list of the most promising artists shaping the future of contemporary art. This year, artists are organized into two categories: Newly Emerging, which presents artists who’ve gained momentum in the past year, showing at leading institutions and galleries; and Getting Their Due, which identifies artists who have persevered for decades, yet only recently received the spotlight they deserve. Now in its third edition, the feature was developed by the Artsy staff, in collaboration with our network of international curators and art professionals. Explore more of The Artsy Vanguard 2020.
Header and thumbnail image, from left to right: Lindsey Mendick, “Dear Leo,” 2019; Portrait of Lindsey Mendick; Lindsey Mendick, “Call Me Circe,” 2019; Lindsey Mendick, “My Guy,” 2019. All images: courtesy of the artist.
