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PAST EVENT

Diving Queens: Portraits of Resilience – An out-of-hours viewing and talk by June Nelson

  • Sue Hamer
  • Apr 28
  • 1 min read

Updated: Aug 19

Thursday 24th Apri 2025

Phoenix Art Space Gallery, Brighton


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Image: June Nelson Diving Queen II. Oil on canvas, 90 x 60 cm, 2024.

Thank you so much to June Nelson for sharing such an interesting insight into her first solo exhibition, Diving Queens: Portraits of Resilience, and her painting practice at our April Blue Monkey Net event. As part of the event, we also got a behind-the-scenes look as June welcomed us into her studio, where we enjoyed lots of inspiring art chat.

 

In this series of paintings from the past two years, June Nelson explores the tension between identity, history, and transformation through portrayals of surreal, enigmatic figures adorned with deep-sea diving helmets, ruffs, and boxing gloves. Drawing inspiration from Elizabethan and Flemish portraiture, the paintings blend tradition with the absurd, where symbols of protection and restriction —such as the rigid ruff and the isolating helmet— contrast with gestures of defiance and self-exploration.


Expect to see women in ambiguous spaces, caught between concealment and revelation. One kneels in frustration; another clutches a helmet like a burden or relic, while others meet the viewer’s gaze with a regal, alien intensity. The paintings aim to create a surface that is both inviting and unsettling, describing a space where humour, vulnerability, and strength collide.

 

June is an artist based in Lewes and a long-term member of Blue Monkey. You can find out more about her practice here.





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Image: BMN at June Nelson's show at Phoenix Artspace Gallery, Brighton





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