Jenny Saville

Jenny Saville (b. 1970, United Kingdom) is a contemporary British painter and an original member of the Young British Artists. She is renowned for her compelling, large-scale depictions of the female figure. Saville's work challenges traditional notions of beauty and confronts societal attitudes towards the body, often portraying flesh in a raw, unidealized manner. She graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 1992, and her early talent caught the eye of collector Charles Saatchi, who purchased her work and included her in the pivotal 1997 exhibition "Sensation" at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Saville's paintings are characterized by their grand scale, expressive brushwork, and striking realism. She draws inspiration from diverse sources, including medical textbooks, art history, and her own body, creating works that explore themes of identity, gender, and corporeality. Her masterly and meticulous handling of oil paint conveys the weight, texture, and palpability of flesh, evoking a visceral response and inviting viewers to confront their perceptions of the human form. Her work challenges the tradition of figurative painting, pushing her figures to the extremities of anatomy and raising questions about society's and art history's perception of the body.

Saville's work is held in public collections around the world, including The Broad, Los Angeles; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Norton Museum of Art, Florida; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Tate, London.

Recent solo exhibitions include Ekkyklema, Gagosian, London (2023); Jenny Saville, Museo Novecento, Museo degli Innocenti, Museo di Casa Buonarroti, Museo di Palazzo Vecchio and Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence, Italy (2021); Jenny Savile: Elpis, Gagosian, New York (2020); and Now: Jenny Saville, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2018).

Group exhibitions include The Human Body, Hill Art Foundation, New York (2021); Busts of Women: Paris 10th Anniversary Exhibition, Gagosian, Paris (2020); Person of Interest, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln (2020); The Aerodrome: An exhibition dedicated to the memory of Michael Stanley, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2019); Visions of the Self: Rembrandt and Now, Gagosian in participation with English Heritage, London (2019).