Erin Lawlor | Artsy

5 Artists on Our Radar in February 2023

“Artists on Our Radar” is a monthly series produced by the Artsy team. Utilizing our art expertise and access to Artsy data, we highlight five artists who have our attention. To make our selections, we’ve determined which artists made an impact this past month through new gallery representation, exhibitions, auctions, art fairs, or fresh works on Artsy.

Erin Lawlor
B. 1969, Epping, England. Lives and works in London.

For Erin Lawlor, the medium is the muse: Her saturated abstractions celebrate the fluidity of paint with wide, exaggerated brushstrokes that wriggle and intertwine across the canvas. Typically large in scale with rich, enticing colors, these works feel like monuments to markmaking itself.

This monumental quality is on full view in Lawlor’s current exhibition, “Invincible Summer,” organized by Vigo Gallery at the Wellington Arch in London. Here, the artist presents works that find resonance with the landmark’s martial history—the heroic, three-paneled battle (2021), for example, draws inspiration from war paintings by the Italian Early Renaissance artist Paolo Uccello. Formally, Lawlor’s piece more obviously bears the influence of Abstract Expressionist painters like Lee Krasner.

Lawlor received a BA in art history from Paris-Sorbonne University, and spent the formative years of her career in Paris before returning to the U.K. In addition to the show at Wellington Arch, which is on view through March 19th, Vigo Gallery is mounting Lawlor’s solo exhibition “Earthly Delights,” on view through March 1st, and presented her work at Art SG in January. Lawlor was also included in the recent group exhibition “Ways of Seeing” at Jarilager Gallery in Cologne.

—Olivia Horn