Rebecca Parkin’s fictional cycles focus on the female figure of subversion and enchantment. Popular depictions become a source from which to survey and negotiate the ever-changing experience women have with their colourful counterparts. Familiar characters like the witch and the mermaid are re-evaluated as empowered yet complex and troublesome figures which persist in the cultural imagination. She often uses materials like pastels for their seductive and fetishistic physicality to hold the viewer in aesthetic arrest and take them along on a journey into cultural fantasy. Friends model mostly, cosplaying these roles which explore the tension between a lived experience of the feminine and a mythology of the feminine. Her characters often look back at us, operating in a metafictional universe, aware of their cultural and historical significance, knowingly meeting our gaze. Engaging with satire and humour she inverts the objectifying and derogatory cliches typical of the kind of medieval misogyny which is on the rise in populist discourse. While drawing on many areas of interest, the intersection between horror and fairy tale primarily informs her imagination. The moral instructions of European fairy tale are stripped away unleashing the female protagonist from her limiting roles and investing her with an agency where she utilises horror and fantasy to rewrite her script. Working in series Rebecca produces narrative cycles where the work is presented as a story in its own world utilising thematic structures, styles and tropes unique to each set. By employing colour theory, word play, character construction, genre styles of presentation and storytelling she build worlds both familiar and reconfigured.
Rebecca Parkin gained the Basil Alkazzi Scholarship at The Royal College of Art and graduated in 2009. She also attended Turps Painting School (off-site) 2020-2021. Recent exhibitions include: Blusher- Art, Makeup, Materiality, De Montfort University Leicester 2025. Our Place in the Family of Things, The Dorman Museum, Middlesbrough 2025. Pourquoi, Gertrude and Canopy Collection, London. ‘Bitch Magic’, Alma Pearl, London. Gertrude Presents, Truman Brewery, London. Invites series –The Cult of the Green Women, Zabludowicz Collection, London. The Blue, The Pink The Immaterial, The Void, The Austrian Cultural Forum, London. Once Upon A Time, 23-25 Chiltern Street, London. Blink, Safe House 1, London, 2022. New Contemporaries 2021, First Site, Colchester and South London Gallery, London. She currently practices from her studio in north London.
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The art of earth stewardship. The Crack Magazine 2025> The art of Earth stewardship |
Spotlight interview championed by Will Jarvis. The Wick. By Veronika Kailich. 2023 > thewickculture.com
A real Horror Show: The Creepy and Uncanny in the Capital. Go with Yamo Blog. By Jelena Sofronijevic. 2022 > gowithyamo.com
The Cult of the Green Women. Interview with Julia Greenway 2022 > zabludowiczcollection.com
Turning B-movie Schlock Horror into a feminist critique. Creative Boom. Written by Fiona Keating 2023. > creativeboom.com
Sister, Siren, Gorgon, Witch! Salome Salmacis Art Salon. Interview by Fay Nicolson. 2022 > salomesalmacis.com
Green Skinned Trickery by Rebecca Parkin. Arty. Issue no.41. Article. Publication by Cathy Lomax. 2022. > artymagazine.com
Art Maze Mag issue no.29. 2022. > artmazemag
Art Yellow Book. #2. Curated by Leejin Kim > artyellowbook