Bio
For centuries, Venus has been seen but not heard. From Botticelli to billboard ads, the female form has been idealised, surveyed, and weaponised in a culture dominated by the male gaze.
My work offers a counter-mythology, reimagining women’s place from muse to mythmaker. I describe my practice as “a love letter to women, written in ink,” exploring desire and liberation through a contemporary feminist lens.
Growing up as a Londoner in Sicily, I was fascinated by the burlesque of religion, the endless saints’ days and the enduring presence of the female deity. These influences continue to shape my work, where the drama of Caravaggio’s black collides with contemporary culture on paper.
But behind the mythology is a darker reality. In 2024, UN Women reported that every ten minutes, a woman is killed by someone she knows. In the shadow of violence against women and girls, I am interested in what follows survival: the reclamation of joy, beauty, and self-possession.
–
Born in London in 1982, Siena Barnes has exhibited internationally, including Tokyo, Nashville and Berlin. Her work is held in prominent collections worldwide. Since 2019, she has collaborated with the Japanese fashion label Hysteric Glamour and more recently, Agent Provocateur. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo and featured in Trebuchet Magazine, as well as on BBC Radio 4.
–
“When life becomes unsatirisable, the smartest artists lean in rather than fall down. At first blush, Barnes’ illustrations are as logo-like and dexterously seductive as the forms they are critiquing… These are advertisements for sex and death, which is to say that they are like all other advertisements as viewed through the glasses from They Live.”
— Philippa Snow, Art Critic and Essayist (Artforum, ArtReview, Frieze)
Click here to read Philippa Snow’s essay
Bio
For centuries, Venus has been seen but not heard. From Botticelli to billboard ads, the female form has been idealised, surveyed, and weaponised in a culture dominated by the male gaze.
My work offers a counter-mythology, reimagining women’s place from muse to mythmaker. I describe my practice as “a love letter to women, written in ink,” exploring desire and liberation through a contemporary feminist lens.
Growing up as a Londoner in Sicily, I was fascinated by the burlesque of religion, the endless saints’ days and the enduring presence of the female deity. These influences continue to shape my work, where the drama of Caravaggio’s black collides with contemporary culture on paper.
But behind the mythology is a darker reality. In 2024, UN Women reported that every ten minutes, a woman is killed by someone she knows. In the shadow of violence against women and girls, I am interested in what follows survival: the reclamation of joy, beauty, and self-possession.
–
Born in London in 1982, Siena Barnes has exhibited internationally, including Tokyo, Nashville and Berlin. Her work is held in prominent collections worldwide. Since 2019, she has collaborated with the Japanese fashion label Hysteric Glamour and more recently, Agent Provocateur. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo and featured in Trebuchet Magazine, as well as on BBC Radio 4.
–
“When life becomes unsatirisable, the smartest artists lean in rather than fall down. At first blush, Barnes’ illustrations are as logo-like and dexterously seductive as the forms they are critiquing… These are advertisements for sex and death, which is to say that they are like all other advertisements as viewed through the glasses from They Live.”
— Philippa Snow, Art Critic and Essayist (Artforum, ArtReview, Frieze)
Click here to read Philippa Snow’s essay