In a new exhibition at Flowers Gallery, British painter Victoria Cantons presents a potent series of portraits tracing her own transgender history—works that were, in part, inspired by the visceral paintings of Jenny Saville, as Ravi Ghosh finds out for Elephant’s Under the Influence column. “[Saville’s] works smack you around the head with a sledgehammer,” Cantons tells Ghosh. “[She] makes you think about the body in a way that it becomes political ground, and specifically the female body. I took that as a challenge. I thought, ‘Can I make an artwork that may, if I’m lucky, be able to operate in the same way?'” Click here to read on.
