ISE
SHARP
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ISESHARP@GMAIL.COM
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Artist Statment
“My work is rooted in the subtle world—what is felt but not seen, known but not named. Born from a transnational lineage and shaped by the philosophical teachings of non-duality, I approach painting as a way to ask questions of existence: What is self, if not spirit made visible? Where do we begin and end in the life/death/life cycle? Through this inquiry I form a cross cultural visual language that interrogates the fluidity of origin, memory, and becoming.
I approach the self and painting as sites of convergence—where body and mind, matter and spirit, the personal and the cosmic meet. Each canvas is a devotional space, an act of presence and attunement. With intuitive gestures and relational mark making I offer reflective spaces of ambiguity, difference, and transformation.
Within my practice I work to challenge notions of authority and homogeneity by subverting imposed aesthetic hierarchies and embracing the multiplicity of my heritage. I draw from ancestral wisdom, natural cycles, and global art histories—including Gutai’s (具体) radical material-body expressions to the poetic atmospheres of Shan shui (山水), the flowing, graphic language of Chinese calligraphy (书法), and the Renaissance’s alchemical use of substance and form.
At the heart of my process is a ritual sensitivity to material. I work with pigments made from charcoaled bone and fruit seeds, mica, marble dust, and chalk, applied to raw or clear-primed linen. These materials are chosen for their spiritual symbolism, vibrational properties, and scientific significance—each carrying frequencies of purification, grounding, and regeneration. The result is not just a painting, but a living vessel of presence.
The practice is guided by four Japanese philosophical states: shoshin (beginner’s mind), mushin no shin (mind of no mind), fudoshin (immovable mind), and zanshin (lingering mind). These serve as meditative anchors, allowing me to return again and again to the act of painting as a living relationship—with material, memory, and spirit.”
About
Ise (意聖) Athena Henriques Sharp is a Jamaican-American artist of European, Chinese, Sephardic Jewish, and West African descent. Raised between Jamaica, the United States, and Japan, her transnational upbringing informs a painting practice grounded in non-duality, ancestral memory, and spiritual inquiry. She approaches the self as a site of convergence—where body and mind, matter and spirit, the personal and the cosmic meet.
Ise’s practice is a sustained meditation on polarity: life and death, form and formlessness, creation and dissolution. Through abstract mark-making and the transformation of natural materials, Ise creates contemplative visual environments that hover between the seen and unseen. Drawing from the graphic yet fluid language of Chinese calligraphy (书法), Ise explores the dynamic tension between motion and stillness, where structure and fluidity carry profound visual presence. Her work is informed by a range of global artistic and ancestral traditions: the radical material-body expressions of Gutai (具体), the poetic landscapes of Shan shui (山水), and the Renaissance’s alchemical use of substance and form. These influences converge to guide her exploration of the interplay between material and immaterial, inviting quiet, intuitive reflection where memory, dream, and nature intertwine.
At the heart of her process is a ritual sensitivity to material. She works with pigments made from charcoaled bone and fruit seeds, mica, marble dust, and chalk, applied to raw or clear-primed linen. These materials are chosen for their spiritual symbolism, vibrational properties, and scientific significance—each carrying frequencies of purification, grounding, and regeneration. The result is not just a painting, but a living vessel of presence.
Ise holds a BA in Studio Art from Pomona College and is currently completing her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in London. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Biennial of Macau (2021), and is held in private collections throughout the United States and the Caribbean. She is one of the core founders of Static Arts Collective, a non-profit art collecive based in New York.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
2024–2025: MA Fine Art, Royal College of Art, London
2023 – 2024: Business Management, Cornell University, New York, USA
2017 – 2021: BA Studio Art, Pomona College, California, USA
Group Exhibitions
2025 – Ancestral Utopias, The Hanger, London, UK
2025 – Works on Paper, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2024 – Tiny Works, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2021 – Now We Must Depart Again, Chan Gallery, CA, USA
2021 – Kindling, Chan Gallery, CA, 2021
2021 – Artfem, Biennial of Macau, Macau, China
Residencies
2025 – Teaching Residency in collaboration of University of Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean, UK
2023 – 2024 – Golden Web Residency, Algarve, Portugal
Awards
2021 - The Matthew Klopfleisch Prize in Art, Pomona College
Interviews/Press
2024 - Body Mapping with Ise Sharp, And the Sun, New York, NY, USA
2020 - Voices on Silence, Jamaican Observer, Kingston, Jamaica