Vanessa Raw England, b. 1984

Vanessa Raw is a British painter whose work weaves together intimacy, mythology and the natural world. Her paintings draw on Greek and Mexican myth, depicting women and animals in enchanted landscapes that feel both ancient and otherworldly. Figures often merge with the land itself, surrounded by symbolic fauna and flora that carry layered meanings.

 

Raw most recently received the The Arts Council Collection Frieze Acquisitions Fund in 2025. In 2024, she held her first institutional exhibition, This is How the Light Gets In at the Rubell Museum, Miami, alongside her first major solo show, On Earth We Weren’t Meant to Stay, at Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate, where she is currently represented. In 2023, she was nominated by Tracey Emin for a solo exhibition as part of Frieze London’s Artist-to-Artist section. Raw earned a BA in Fine Art from Loughborough University and, in 2022, was selected for a studio at TKE Studios. She currently lives and works in Margate, England.

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© Portrait of Vanessa Raw by Kat Green