A FORMULA FOR HOW TO FIND LOVE - An exhibition by Victoria Cantons

A Formula for How to Find Love will comprise new text-based works that will mark a major evolution in Cantons’ practice, expanding her focus from questions of identity to more philosophical expression of emotion through language.

The newly commissioned works for Mimosa House span paintings, moving image, sound and installation. These works draw on Cantons’ previous training as an actor to express and explore a range of emotional registers as well as the skills she has honed in developing her painterly practice, which moves between highly naturalistic figuration and expressive compositions.

For Cantons, the show’s title is an attempt to recuperate kindness and love in a time of increasing conflict and polarised socio-political and cultural opinion. Cantons describes her work as an abstract self-portrait, shaped by both her personal history and the broader history of art and humanity.

The influences that she draws on in her work encompass intimate experiences – such as her mother’s funeral – painters including Degas, Manet and Titian, classical art, as well as philosophy, literature and mathematics.

Her work is autobiographical and confessional with political undercurrents that address trans rights, class, discrimination and representation.