Vanessa Brassey

A figurative painter and academic philosopher, Brassey explores time—its presence, its possibilities—in still images. Movement, memory, the way a moment lingers. In the studio, she works instinctively, collecting fragments—glass shards, copper plumbing tiles, wine box lids, torn canvas, old paper—bringing them together with paint, ink, transfer, and collage. There is no rigid plan; the process is fluid, immersive like the icy plunge of the swimmers she observes getting into cold water. Brassey works in series—a way of seeing, a way of thinking. Hampstead Heath Swimmers is her most developed, but the same fascination with time and memory runs through VINTAGE painted on salvaged wine box lids, and MESSENGERS where past and present selves meet in and around water. VERSION a recent work, extends this further: ten interchangeable panels, shifting the story as it unfolds. Her work has been exhibited at ING Discerning Eye 2023 & 2024, the Women in Art Prize 2023, and the Affordable Art Fairs. Alongside painting, she continues to publish philosophy while working with the National Gallery on films, lectures, and curriculum projects. Different mediums, same questions: how does time move, and how do we capture it?