2022 Artist in Residence – Alice Xu

St Andrew’s College is pleased to welcome our youngest Artist in Residence, Alice Xu, for 2022. Now in its fifth year, the St Andrew’s Artist in Residence program offers one creative artist a year the opportunity to focus on developing their own body of work in a residential environment, as well as sharing their skills and experience with College residents and our wider community.

A multidisciplinary artist, Alice mostly paints with oils and inks, as well as creating digital illustrations. She produces collages and often paints these by assembling and composing images, mainly of bodies and figures in scenes of the mundane. The inspirations for her work are the little moments in life, and she enjoys the technical sides of art – drawing faces, and figure drawing. “My work is done when there is enough detail”; each oil and ink painting takes approximately a month to complete, and she works on several pieces at a time.

Alice’s proudest achievement to date is her progress in her practice – not to mention the numerous awards she has received. “My greatest ambition is to be able to support myself as a full-time artist, and eventually become an art teacher”.

Since receiving a Bachelor of Fine Art from the National Art School in 2021, Alice has only flourished in her work. Currently, she is taking leave from her Masters to complete her residency at St Andrew’s College, which she sees as an excellent opportunity to develop her art.

Best reached on Instagram or in the Dining Hall, Alice is now settling into College, connecting and collaborating with other creative students. Her most recent portrait work involves College students in and around campus – talking in their bedrooms and spending time around the common spaces.

Alice resonates with artists such as Liu Xiao Dong and Kim Jung Gi, who have semi-realist styles and create narratives out of found locations and the ordinary, seeing people as they are. Austin Briggs, who draws with charcoal but shades with ink, is an inspiration in composition for her documentative paintings. For them and herself, painting is better used as a device to display the personal story of the subjects and environment.

When she’s not working, Alice likes to dance – whether it’s K-pop (Korean Pop) or hip hop. Her advice to fledgling artists is: “Stick to your own style! Take advice but stay true to what you want to make, and not what you think others will like.”

Alice is holding her first solo exhibition at Sheffer Gallery in Darlington, from 22 June to 2 July. Come and support her there at the opening night, 22 June from 6 – 8pm.

Find out more about Alice at her website: https://alicexuart.com/ or contact her at alicexuart@gmail.com