In Pursuit of Happiness – Paintings by Lois Samuel

Swansea MAD is inviting local artists to display their artwork in our office. We want to be able to support artists, whether they are starting out or are more established. Over the last year, we’ve had some successful collaborations with artists such as Mikey Leahy and Jeff Phillips, but we are looking forward to connecting with new artists to promote their work.

Lois standing with their arms out in front of a white wall with their art on. Their art is brightly coloured with white swirls like the ripples in water.
Lois Samuel in front of their art

Our next artist, whose work is currently on display in the front of our office, is Lois Samuel. Lois is a South Wales-based artist and UWTSD graduate, who explores the human experience and perception. Being on the autism spectrum, the connection they have with the theme of senses, and how they affect experiences, has strengthened their art practice as they now explore the different ways of processing their surroundings. The fascination with random items, patterns and phenomena in the world and their drive to unlock their potential to become art drives how they work.

Lois has had their work described as capricious, whimsical and empathetic, drawing people in with bright and colourful abstraction to cover her broad subject of experiences, which they purposefully keep open and vague in order to have multiple projects to work on at a given time.

Black card with 3 white squares with white wavey lines in it.
Black square with white wavey lines inside.
Yellow card with a white square and white wavey lines in it.
Pink rectangle card with 2 white rectangles with black and white wavey lines inside it.
Light blue rectangle card with 3 white rectangles and black and white wavey lines in it.
Green rectangle card with a black rectangle with yellow and black wavey lines inside of it.
Examples of Lois’ Work – Inspired by the patterns we see in water

When talking about their exhibition, Lois has said “Finishing my master’s degree in Fine Art this year, an immediate sense of loss hit me. I no longer needed to make art to fill a quota or impress anyone and I felt nothing but burnout and resentment towards my work. So, I thought back to what I actually enjoyed creating and found my paintings inspired by water patterns and fell in love once again with the process of making a piece and its meditative nature, painting only with feeling where a line should be instead of overthinking every move, this along with a current focus on minimalistic line work on single colour backgrounds makes for a bold statement in both looks and concept of only painting for myself.”

It has been lovely to see the passion that has been reignited in Lois and to chat with them about their moments of inspiration. One lovely memory that we discussed was a visit they took to Venice. When everyone else was encapsulated by the old buildings and architecture, Lois was taking inspiration from the patterns in the water. Seeing their art on our walls, you can see how this has continued to inspire and influence their work and we encourage everyone to come along and have their take on the pieces. 

Lois holding up their miniature art pieces
Lois holding up their miniature art pieces

We look forward to having Lois’ art in the next couple of months and hope that our visitors, participants and partners will enjoy looking at it too. Come down between 17th June and 16th August to look at their work. 

To check out more of Lois’ artwork, visit their Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/lsam.jpg/

If you are an artist and would like to display your art in the coming months with Swansea MAD please contact us via: phoebe@madswansea.com