Archipelago, Contemporary Art Gallery in Sheffield, UK

Archipelago Art Gallery is hosting a show of new work offering a contemporary take on the nude in images inspired by the spontaneity of photographs, intimate yet detached, voyeuristic yet aware.

Saskia Palmer's 'hotel/ boudoir' paintings are largely a celebration of the Polaroid snapshot evoking the sauciness, romance and fun of the home erotica snapshot. For decades before digital photography, polaroids were the ideal way for lovers to produce intimate and private images. The artist has retained the feeling of that form by sharply emphasising the flashlit foreground, bringing the subject dramatically forward whilst the background recedes into darkness. The paintings are set in flat frames designed to echo the polaroid format,

Saskia Palmer gained a BA in Graphic Design and Illustration from Leicester Polytechnic and has lived in Sheffield for 18 years. Now working chiefly as a portrait painter and fascinated by the human face and figure she cites Rembrandt, Manet and Lucien Freud as artistic Influences. Her collection in this show also includes portraits derived from informal photographs

For the past eight years, Elizabeth von Graevenitz has explored the portrayal of fashion, style and identity through the languages of painting, film making and photography. Her new series of 'self portraits' offer a challenging parody. They seek to expose the contradiction between a private identity and a commodity based construction of image. Focussing on the accessories of the designer lifestyle, juxtaposed with repeated appearances of an anonymous naked figure, looking away, unknown to the viewer, these aspirational environments offer a disarming aftertaste of absence. Elizabeth lives in Sheffield and is currently studying for a BA in Contemporary Fine Art at Psalter Lane.

All works in the show are for sale.