Amélie Peace (b.1997, France) is a french-born artist currently working in London. She graduated with a BA in Fine Art from City and Guilds London Art School in 202l. Her practice delves into the experience of touch and the human need for physical connection. The psychophysical dialogues curated in her paintings discuss emotional, sexual, and gendered experiences. She explores what it means to be human, sheds light on desires and turmoil, and how our inner lives are reflected in our bodies.

Peace captures moments that tread the line between softness and cruelty. That cruelty may be subtle at times, but one can look to the clues she has left behind for us to decipher. Hands are a clear fascination for her, as forms that are often repeated in her work; acting as stepping stones, guiding the viewer through the many storylines in the paintings. Her characters interlaced with one another, often render a sense of physical dependence, as if her figures once shared a body. They depict how each exchange with another person alters one’s sense of their own physical self. Her paintings are not only portrayals of observations she has made, but also a mirror of parts of herself.

The intensity in colour is used as a megaphone to portray the themes she explores in her practice; what it means to speak without words and the power that can be found in the silent language of the gestural. The subject of the work often sits in contrast with the cheerful and playful colour palette. This dichotomy is an illustration of human contradictions open to the viewer’s interpretation. The characters in each painting make eye contact, challenging the viewer to engage with the theatrical puzzle that Peace has crafted in her pursuit to illuminate the complexities of human emotion.