Anousha Payne

Anousha Payne (b. 1991, Southampton) is an artist whose work explores the boundaries between personal experience, fiction and myth. Informed by Indian folkloric stories and personal fiction, it plays on ideas of the performative powers of objects and chance; the combination of moral dilemmas and magic alongside characters with transformative qualities.

Often deploying reptile skin, her ceramics are intended as hybrid objects, a reminder of the fluidity and shared qualities between humans, animals, the natural world and inanimate objects. Ceramic sculptures are adorned with jewellery and textiles, acting as cultural signifiers whilst questioning material hierarchies and values.

Another element to her work is storytelling through simple gestures and expressions, reflecting on human interaction and communication. The deployment of bharathantyam hand gestures are used as a way of connecting with cultural heritage, as well as being used for their known symbolic meaning.

Payne holds a BFA in Sculpture from Camberwell College of Art (2020). 

Solo and duo exhibitions include ‘Tender Mooring’, Deli Gallery, New York (2023); ‘Tangled toes, twisted ears’ (with Laila Tara H), Public Gallery, London (2022); ‘Thick mud, slowly oozing’, Stellarhighway, New York (2022); ‘As she laughs’ (with Anna Perach), Cooke Latham Gallery, London (2021); ‘‘and here she dwells’, Indigo + Madder, London (2021).

Her works have been featured in group exhibitions at Deli Gallery, New York (2023); Super Super Markt, Berlin (2023); Sperling, Munich (2023); Guts Gallery, London (2023); Swivel Gallery, New York (2023); Romero Paprock, Paris (2022); Arusha Gallery | High Line Nine, New York (2022); Tabula Rasa, London (2022) Alkinois, Athens (2022); Roman Road, London (2022); Marcelle Joseph Projects at Pi Arts, London (2022); Paradise Row Projects, London (2021); Tube Culture Hall, Milan (2021); Guts Gallery, London (2021); Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh (2021); Island Gallery, Brussels (2021); Public Gallery, London (2020).

She has completed residencies at Numero Venti, Firenze (2022); The Fores Project, London (2021); and Villa Lena, Tuscany (2019).