Aleah Chapin’s highly anticipated new paintings will go on view for the first time in an exhibition titled: Maiden, Mother, Child & Crone at Flowers Cork Street gallery, London from October 8th – November 8th, 2014. Aleah is renowned for her ongoing ‘Aunties Project’, which comprises figural depictions of a group of the same women she has known all her life, capturing them unashamedly nude with a playful, exaggerated and Rubenesque figural style. Her new exhibition is centred around a theme that derives from several schools of thought, but predominantly Neopaganism, where each stage in a woman’s life cycle is symbolized.

Her new works therefore are multi-generational, observing the female body at differing stages of life, both as separate phases and as part of a larger and necessary whole. The questions they raise are how life affects us as we age and how life circumstances add to the aging process. They also expand on the archetypal female image to include a more complete portrayal.

Chapin focuses on the exploration of the intricate relationships between a range of generations, and the vital importance of each. She also confronts social expectations and assumptions of our actions as we age – what society expects and how people react when those expectations are not met, or are challenged.

Born in 1986, Aleah Chapin grew up on an island north of Seattle and has been painting since she was a child. She received her BFA from Cornish College of the Arts in 2009 and her MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2012. She attended a residency at the Leipzig International Art Programme in Germany and has exhibited her work in the US, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK. She has been the recipient of several awards including the Posey Foundation Scholarship, Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, a Postgraduate Fellowship from the New York Academy of Art and the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London in 2012. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.