Powder Puff

'Powder Puff' is a solo exhibition of Florence Houston, focusing on the artist’s fascination with food that people tend to look at rather than eat—with a particular emphasis on jellies. The wobbling, visually striking nature of jelly intrigues her, creating a dynamic balance between attraction and repulsion. She began painting jellies in 2021, drawing inspiration from Victorian illustrations and the memories of her childhood. The allure of Houston’s jellies, and in her painting practice in general, lies in their ability to be both aesthetically beautiful and grotesque. The exhibition marks the culmination of her growing interest in the tension between...

Florence Houston (b. 1989) lives and works in London. Houston trained for four years at Charles H. Cecil in Florence, Italy, where she honed her technique in oil painting with a focus on portraiture. Houston paints nostalgic and familiar objects, exploring their conflicting characteristics and society's preconceived views of them. Colour is incredibly important to her, and she takes as much car...

Florence Houston (b. 1989) lives and works in London. Houston trained for four years at Charles H. Cecil in Florence, Italy, where she honed her technique in oil painting with a focus on portraiture. Houston paints nostalgic and familiar objects, exploring their conflicting characteristics and society's preconceived views of them. Colour is incredibly important to her, and she takes as much care in choosing a specific palette as she does in planning the composition and subject matter.

Houston started painting jellies in 2021, inspired by illustrations of ornate Victorian jellies and childhood memories of eating them from paper plates. She's drawn to their ability to be simultaneously beautiful and grotesque. There is palpable tension in their identity as food but their destiny to be looked at rather than to be consumed. Each painting's subject is designed with the idea of exploring the possibilities of her applying paint to canvas, their compositions paying lavish attention to the surface and textures of plastic, cream, jelly, glass and fruit and silk, to name a few.