Artists in Conversation: Cecily Brown and Celia Paul
Join artists Cecily Brown and Celia Paul for a live conversation exploring their individual approaches to painting, daily studio practices and the images that continue to inspire them.
While their artistic sensibilities differ significantly, Brown and Paul share a deep commitment to painting as a means of looking, memory and transformation. Drawing on a vast range of visual sources, Brown creates dynamic, richly layered canvases, animated by vigorous brushwork, luminous colour and a continual play between revelation and abstraction. In contrast, Paul’s intimate portraits and self-portraits explore the emotional depths of lived experience with sensitivity and restraint. Her work combines emotional intensity with stillness, inviting sustained reflection on the relationship between inner and outer worlds.
Their shared fascination with colour, painterly process and art history is reflected in an exchange of letters excerpted in the exhibition catalogue Cecily Brown: Picture Making. These writings offer a glimpse into the affinities and differences that shape their practices.
Please note that the exhibition will remain open until 7 pm on the day.
Artist Bios
Cecily Brown (b.1969, London, UK) is one of the foremost painters working today. Following instruction from British painter Maggi Hambling, Brown attended the Slade School of Fine Art, London, where she graduated with a BFA in painting in 1993. During her studies, she undertook an exchange programme at the New York Studio School where she found a deep affinity with the city. In 1994, she moved to New York, where she continues to live and work.
Recent major solo exhibitions of the artist’s work include the Dallas Museum of Art, TX, USA (which travelled to the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, PA, USA in 2025); Museo Novecento and Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy (2023); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA (2023); Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany (2022); Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy (2022); Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, UK (2020); and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark (2018).
Celia Paul is a painter known for her intimate and reflective depictions of people and places. Paul has repeatedly painted herself, her own family members, and landscapes with which she has a deep personal connection. She was born in India in 1959, before moving to Britain as a young child. She lives and works in London. Select solo exhibitions include Innervisions at Gladstone Gallery (2026); Celia Paul: Water Divining at Sant’Andrea de Scaphis, Rome (2025); Colony of Ghosts at Victoria Miro (2025); Celia Paul: The Sea, The Sea, curated by Hilton Als, at Yale Center for British Art (2018) and The Huntington (2019); Desdemona for Celia by Hilton, Gallery Met, New York (2015); and Gwen John and Celia Paul, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester (2012). Her work was included in the group exhibitions School of London at Kunstmuseum, The Hague (2025); The Woman Question 1500 – 2025 at Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2025) and All Too Human at Tate Britain (2018), and is in many collections, including the British Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum and Metropolitan Museum, New York.
