Lola Stong-Brett

The emotional approach of cartoons is mirrored in Stong-Brett’s paintings. The surface joy and childlike nature of cartoons enables a heightened sense of feeling to be carried through them. The artist is likewise drawn to the intensity of clowns, whose emotions can appear outsized and charged, holding extreme joy and terror together. In this body of work, clowns seem to have emerged, almost like spectators at a fair, referencing the concept of everyday ‘masking’, the smiles we put on through hard times, and our individual fluctuations between joy and despair. The sublime nature of devotional paintings also underlies the work. The artist is interested in the notion of putting someone on a divine pedestal, whether an idealised part of the self, a partner or parent. Arch-like shapes, such as mountains and windows repeat through the works, including ‘The Family Portrait’ and ‘Perhaps I Was A Fool For Loving You’ (all works 2025), capturing Stong-Brett’s interest in religious ornamental windows and painters such as Giotto and Piero della Francesca.

The artist’s own childhood and working-class background, as well as her present life and in-the-moment feelings in the studio, resonate through the works. She is drawn to Popeye as one of the first well-known cartoon characters to be presented as working class. In paintings like ‘I Was Just All Taken Up By You / Have You Ever Wanted Something This Badly?’, Popeye figures huddle in groups. They could be sitting around pub tables, evoking a similar everyday familiarity to Cézanne’s ‘The Card Players’. There are also moments of tension, when the figures could be cuddling or strangling one another, conveying the complexities of human relationships and our internal dynamic with ourselves.

‘When I Didn’t Think I’d Feel Again’ is her largest work to date, a sweeping five-panel piece in the final room. Seemingly split compositionally into two halves, the first appears as though a figure is being held up supportively, while the second seems more stifling, as if the figure is not being let go. ‘The Other Side/Watching the Punches, Watching Love’ is similarly ambiguous, with two figures who could be understood to be holding hands or entwined in the boxing ring. The clown-like crowd around them might also be read as warm support or rowdy spectators. Groups of figures in ‘The Circus Act’ evoke the revelry of the pub; at the same time, they might call to mind oppressive boardroom tables. The fair is suggested once again in this work, through flag-like shapes that rise in the background.

Poetry also plays an important role for Stong-Brett, who began writing during the Tracey Emin Artist Residency. This now feeds into her double-edged titles. Working from written word, initial sketches and her intuitive imagination, the artist creates passionate paintings that veer between abstraction and figuration. Through words and painterly gestures, she balances the constant push and pull tension within everyday life, referencing both internal and external elements that we can or cannot control.

Margate is woven through the works, a place loaded with its own British seaside nostalgia. The sea is referenced numerous times, a reflection on emotional turbulence. Boat-like shapes appear in several works; in the poignantly titled ‘As You Held Me Under’ and ‘All You Can Do Is Laugh’, it is unclear whether the figures are pushing one another out of these structures or pulling them in. This captures an enduring feeling at the heart of Stong-Brett’s paintings: in this space, nothing is resisted and is welcomed together. Whether hugging or strangling one another, her figures exist in a magnificent and inherently human space between joy and despair; beauty and melancholy.

– Text By Emily Steer