• Caroline Jackson

    The Armory Show

  • Sim Smith is delighted to present a new body of work by Caroline Jackson for The Armory Show.

     

    Caroline Jackson is an abstract painter originally from East Sussex; now living and working in London. After graduating from The Slade School of Art in 2022, Jackson now continues her practice here in London. Jackson’s work explores the instinctive nature of painting, informed by feeling and intuition. Often architectural forms seamlessly meld with organic contours of landscapes, dissolving distinctions between natural and built environments. Vivid planes of colour, shape and line are all in the pursuit of harmony and balance. Caught in a perpetual state of becoming, Jackson’s work constantly mediate between moments of serene beauty and chaos: welcoming a viewer into a network of captured moments and shapes. Whether physical or metaphorical, such transitory spaces ultimately evoke periods of growth, decay and impermanence.

  • Caroline Jackson, 2026, oil, acrylic and oil pastel on canvas, 200 × 310 cm (78¾ × 122 in) diptych

  • “All of my work always starts the same way. I try and go into something with an open mind and with the willingness to experiment."

     

    "I use my favourite paintbrush, which is the one I’ve used for 85% of all of my works. I always use that to start off with and basically just go for it in terms of sketching out something, having tendrils and loops overlapping. I think of that as the bones of the painting, and then from that coms the flesh. As you build it up, it might not be visible when it comes to the end of the piece, but it’s still within there, somewhere."

  • The themes explored throughout these paintings resonate far beyond the studio, touching on embodied ritual, collective memory, and female connection...

    The themes explored throughout these paintings resonate far beyond the studio, touching on embodied ritual, collective memory, and female connection across time. The act of women gathering to dance has deep historical roots, spanning medieval folklore, mythological traditions, seasonal festivals, and communal rites. From the rebellious spirit of Expressionist dance and the revival of feminine spirituality in Modern Wicca to the viral expressions of solidarity seen today, dance remains a powerful means of collective expression, liberation, and belonging.

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  • “I have always been interested in the intersections between feminism, representation, painting and spirituality, the theatricality of gender and the push and pull between earnestness and humour. Over the last few years, I have connected with Jungian ideas of alchemy, the shadow and individuation. As someone who grew up intensely religious - but not currently - I am drawn to these imagistic concepts as a way of including transformation, visions and a form of spirituality, to help navigate experience.“

  • Recent research published by the University of Leeds in the journal Psychology of Music found that participation in rave and dance culture among women aged 40–65 contributes significantly to both mental and physical wellbeing. The study identified dance as a powerful form of stress relief, emotional release, and self-expression, with many participants describing club environments as spaces of transformation, freedom, and community with many citing the experience of attending EDM events as “spiritual”.

  • Corri-Lynn Tetz, Chrysalis (pink), 2026, oil on canvas, 76.2 × 66 cm (30 × 26 in)

  • “I was having frequent conversations with female friends about a building anger in all of us...a frustration with our own feelings of powerlessness. During that time, friends hosted a big dance party. We danced for hours. In one moment, I remember my friend looked up at me and yelled ‘I’m SO angry!!!’ I yelled back, ‘So am I!’. We hugged and kept dancing.”

  • In many ways, Tetz’s paintings act as a visual barometer of the current cultural moment, asking a timely and universal...

    In many ways, Tetz’s paintings act as a visual barometer of the current cultural moment, asking a timely and universal question:

     

    What does it feel like to be a woman living today?

     

    The woman depicted throughout the series occupies a space of joy and emotional abandon. She gathers, moves, and loses herself. Through luminous colour, expressive gesture, and intimate observation, the artist captures those fleeting moments when individuality dissolves into something larger—a shared experience of freedom, belonging, and release.

     

    These paintings offer an invitation: to escape, even if only briefly and most importantly, to dance.

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