Paper Galleries

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, we’re encouraged to spend a little more time and put in a little more effort for the ones we love. It reminds me of the work by an artist I recently discovered this past October; on a little pre-Frieze gallery hop, I was drawn into the wonderful Gillian Jason Gallery by Emily Ponsonby’s yellow-tinged paintings emanating warmly through the windows. On a chilly fall afternoon, her paintings tempted me in like a warm pastry from a café I’d been meaning to try. 

Ponsonby’s “A Warm Life Through Butter” invites us to share a dinner with friends, a chess game in the bathtub, breakfast in the garden or a naked peek through the window. The exhibition title is a reference to Ponsonby’s preferred method of work: the artist mixes her paint with beeswax to render her scenes “through butter”, amplifying the naturalism of texture in skin, food, fabric and liquid. She scratches through the surface of her materials, making figures seem almost carved and rendered three-dimensionally out of wax. Her cramped and chaotic compositions distort perspective to include the viewer in the shenanigans of her subjects. Gazes turn towards us, imploring us to join the conversation; suddenly strangers’ faces begin to feel familiar. The distinct intimacy with which Ponsonby imbues in her scenes makes one feel as though we were meant to be right where they are. Her artworks appeal to all of one’s senses: you can almost taste the wine, crave the butter, feel the chess pieces or warm bathwater between your fingers, smell the onion, the tomato, and soap, hear the “chiacchierata” of old friends over a wholesome meal at an Italian restaurant.

Only while writing this article did I realise the genius of how she titles her works. They’re witty and endearing, personal while still being universal. In Six Days and Twenty Two Minutes from You, we’re thrust into the narrative of the painting: are we reading a letter over a shoulder, or is this letter for us? Looking up close, the most legible words are, “I apologise for using your toothbrush”. Ponsonby wants us to think about people we love and miss, and give compassion to those we might need to forgive. 

The impact her works had on me was deepened by the lovely gallery – which only represents women-identifying artists, by the way – where the director was teaching some little art historians about Emin and Abramović. I saw my younger self in a little girl who, holding an art magazine up to her mom, said confidently, “This painting is very Andy Warhol”.

Gillian Jason Gallery also represented Emily Ponsonby’s work at this year’s London Art Fair, with even more brand new, brilliantly intimate artworks. My favourite of which was a piece titled Regency Women, which is exactly what I want my Galentine’s Day celebrations to look like. Ponsonby is the master of depicting casual, uninhibited, comfortable nudity and refuses to let the characters in her paintings feel awkward or unwelcome.

Emily Ponsonby’s work is a phenomenal reminder of the small joys we often feign to acknowledge. In a world so divided, isolated, and lacking whimsy, I came away from this exhibition feeling warmly lit from within, excited to connect with others and the world around me. This Valentine’s Day, whether you’re spending it with your partner, your friends, your family, or just solo, I encourage all of you readers to look at life “through butter” and remember the sweetness that resides in the smallest parts of life. 

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Edited by: Isabel Hume

Cover Image: Emily Ponsonby, Buttered Greens, 2025. Photo from https://thewickculture.com/spotlight-emily-ponsonby/