Rolling Fog in it’s new London home
“Rolling Fog is a big beautiful painting - Time slips by while gazing at it - the more you look the more you see, it is as if the ‘Rolling Fog” is continually revealing itself - such a clever piece - it is a joy and privilege to have in my home.” SL LondonW2
In the studio 2026. Photo © Alice Dunhill
Artist Statement
The commute to my studio is short. Maybe 30 paces at most. The garden, shifting through the seasons informs my work: the colours, the cycles of growth and decay, the movement, the stillness and its population. My progress across the patio, up the steps and along the grass is a bodily, sensorial experience and has a soft, subliminal touch on my psyche. I feel, know, remember and connect - to the sun’s energy felt in the patch of scorched grass; the wind in the agility of the bamboo; the hypnotic scent of the heavy ripe figs; the flights of imagination in the shape shifting clouds; the grounding baseness of the bare, heavy wet clay earth of my trodden waterlogged path. It’s a series of slight and muscular experiences. It’s now, then and maybe. It’s harmonious in its flow, agitation and disruption. It’s knowledge and improvisation. It’s alchemical, a oneness, all connected, always has been, always will be. Outside and inside the studio.
May 2026
Biog
Min Angel lives and works in South London. She graduated in 1990 with a First Class BA in Art History (with Anthropology subsid) from University College London and had a career in Arts Administration working at English National Opera, Design Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum and other art organisations. After raising two children, she gained a First Class BA in Painting from Camberwell College of Art (2006) and a MFA in Fine Art from Slade School of Fine Art (2008). In 2011 she studied for a teaching qualification in adult learning and trained as a Guide for the Tate. In 2018 she attended Turps Art School Off-Site programme until 2021. In November 2025 she joined Turps painting school as their Gallery Manager.
2006 Group shows include The Irving Open 2026 (Oxford), The Alternative Valentine Show, Lido Stores (Margate), Studio1.1 This Year’s Model (London), BLINK Room Shares 9 and 10, Aflame: a democracy of drawing and So Where Do We Go From Here? (Bell House, London), RA Summer Show (Royal Academy, London), The Gloaming Plane (Germany), Once In a blue Moon (London) and a Solo Show at Finch Gallery (London).
In 2025 her work was exhibited in ‘If Heaven Falls’ at Lido Stores, Margate, longlisted for Jackson’s Art Prize and RA Summer Exhibition, included in two BLINK Room Share group shows nos 7 (which she curated) and 8 in Peckham, in a show in The Incidentals (London) which she co-curated, in rose is a rose is a rose at Finch Cafe London and she had a newly commissioned piece in rose is a rose is a rose which was taken to 501 Fifth Avenue (New York), in Art on a Postcard’s Summer Auction, in Works From The Prominent Collection of Lady Victoria Beecham (London), in Canalboat Contemporary’s Miniature Masters show (London), in Wells Art Contemporary (Wells Cathedral), in Crowd Scene at Finch Cafe and for one night only in Two Plus Two in London.
2024 exhibitions included, ‘Exeter Contemporary Open’, Exeter Phoenix Gallery, ‘Fierce Scandal’, Margate, BLINK ‘Room Share 5’ and ‘6’, April and September, London, ‘The Tipping Point’, London, SFSA ‘Drawing Open’, London and Studio1.1 ‘This Year’s Model 2024 Part III’. In 2023 she was shortlisted for the ‘Jackson’s Painting Prize’ and exhibited at Bankside Gallery in July. Other shows included ‘Goddesses (A Love Explosion)’ in London and ‘Goddesses on Sea’ Margate, BLINK ‘Room Share 4’, London, September and ‘Windows and Thresholds - Breaking Glass’ at Bell House, Dulwich as part of Dulwich Open House Weekend in May. In 2022, Angel exhibited online in ‘Splash, Drip, Throw’, Visionary Art Collective, Brooklyn, NY, in BLINK’s ‘Room Share 2’, Peckham, in SFSA ‘Drawing Open’ in Deptford, ‘Ways Of Seeing Green’ at the Dulwich Festival, participated in the Art Car Boot Fair and from the end of May to the end of June attended a 32 day, fully funded art residency at Cyprus College of Art. Her painting, ‘How Does The Wind’ was shortlisted for the RA Summer Exhibition in 2022 and ‘The Pools Of Dee’ shortlisted in 2021.
Her work has been exhibited in the UK, Germany, Amsterdam, Greece, Romania, Russia, Mexico and Cyprus. At the start of 2021 and 2023 she participated in the online Colour and Poetry Symposium exhibition at the Slade School of Fine Art. In the spring of 2021 Angel co-established the artists’ platform BLINK with artists Lucy Soni and Dido Hallett to provide an opportunity for artists to get work out of the studios and onto the walls of exhibition spaces. The Gathering Part 1 opened at AMP gallery in Peckham in July and in September she curated the work of six artists in BLINK'S second show Room Share. In 2020 she was long-listed for the John Moores Painting Prize. In 2018 she won the KPP Prize For Art, Architecture and Design: Forms Assembled In The Light. In 2010 she had a solo exhibition at the Corn Exchange, Edinburgh.
Alongside her art practice, Angel practices the ancient energy arts of Shaolin Cosmos Qigong and Zen meditation.
Text by Lee Johnson
HER HAND LISTENS
A fig tree catches the eye on the short walk to Min Angel’s garden studio. Irises play in the breeze, their colours dancing in front of the fig’s grey trunk. Absent during my previous visit in winter they announce themselves loudly this spring, promising a good day ahead, among the reds of dying tulips and the surrounding flora’s collage of warm and cool greens.
Artist’s studios can be messy and chaotic. However, upon entering Min's there is an immediate sense of peace, like stepping into a secret, sacred space. Of course there are myriad tools, chemicals and equipment that shape the paintings into being, and there is a haphazard messiness too, but itʼs all somehow very calming. Colours have seeped in from the garden (how could they not?), and everything feels alive with growth. Tendrils outside are matched by searching lines and marks across multiple surfaces - canvas, panel, paper, cardboard. I wrote the word ‘attack’ in my notebook to remind me of the physicality clearly evident in the work, jumping confidently between wrist, elbow and shoulder - like all good painters do.
In-progress paintings (‘unfinished’ is too negative a word) lean, stand or sit against the walls in a loose assembly echoing a cluster of potted plants I walked past earlier on the patio. The paintings seem eager to converse, primed for another exchange, promising to re-connect with the artist (or indeed chat among themselves). Clearly they have freedom to grow here, find their way. Some marks are rapid, intuitive, unrestricted by logical thought. Others are slow, considered, where Min’s hand follows what the painting is wanting, needing, or perhaps even asking for. When they speak her hand listens.
To write this text I wanted to avoid describing Min’s paintings as they need to be seen and experienced in person. This may sound cliched, but experiencing them is key - I can’t tell you a painting. Too much writing about painters focuses on specific elements of the work, summarising into a few neatly crafted sentences what the writer wants to tell you, which is fine in some respects, but I find this approach too reductive. It misses (and vastly overlooks) the many incidents, feelings, failings, decisions, wrong turns, impulsive responses etc, that go into making a painting, not all of which will survive. This is the ‘work’ aspect of the work, the most important element as it encapsulates the painter as person.
Paintings are the conduit between an artist’s conscious and unconscious connection to the world they inhabit (both physical and spiritual, as well as metaphysical), which brings to mind Ted Hughes 1957 poem The Thought Fox. The poem cemented his need to write poetry, as it re-connected his young adult self to his childhood which was immersed in nature. Hughes wrote it after struggling with an essay deadline when at university. After giving up and going to bed he was immediately visited by a fox in his doorway. “You’re destroying us,” the fox said, reminding him to listen to the natural world that was Hughes’ one true master, not those who artificially attempted to shape his writing.
Min’s paintings are akin to Hughes’ Thought Fox, subconsciously reminding her to listen to the work, and by extension, to herself. Only listening will allow the promise of a hot day.
Lee Johnson (June 2026)
In preparation for my solo show at Finch Gallery, artist, Lee Johnson visited my studio in June of this year and wrote this piece to accompany the show. Many thanks to Lee. You can find his work on https://www.instagram.com/leejohnsonstudio
Min Angel CV
2026 September – BLINK Room Share 10, The Curators Show +1, London
2026 July – Promise of a Hot Day, Finch Gallery, London (Solo)
2026 June – The Gloaming Plane, Krufeld, Germany
2026 June – Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
2026 May – The Democracy of Drawing, Bell House, London
2026 May – So where do we go from here, Bell House, London
2026 April – BLINK Room Share 9, London
2026 March – Women’s Day, Small Works Art Gallery, London
2026 February – This Year’s Model Part II, Studio1.1, London
2026 February – Memento Amoris, The Lido Stores, Margate
2026 January – The Irving Open, Oxford
2025 December -Two Plus Two Christmas, Glassyard Studios, London
2025 October – Crowd Scene, Finch Café, London
2025 September – The Prominent Collection of Lady Victoria Beecham, Thames-side Studios Gallery, London
2025 September – BLINK Room Share 8, Peckham, London
2025 September – a rose is a rose is a rose, pop-up, 57w57, New York
2025 June – a rose is a rose is a rose, pop-up, Finch Café, London
2025 May – Incidentals, Bell House, London (curation)
2025 April – Shortlisted for RA Summer Show
2025 April – Longlisted for Jackson’s Painting Prize
2025 April – BLINK Room Share 7, Peckham, London (curation)
2025 February – If Heaven Falls, The Lido Stores, Margate
2025 February – Studio1.1 This Year’s Model Part II, London
2024 November - Southwark Park Galleries Open
2024 September – BLINK Room Share 6, Peckham, London (curation)
2024 September - Exeter Contemporary Open, Exeter
2024 June – Studio 1:1 Members Show, London
2024 May – SFSA Drawing Open 2024, London
2024 May – Poise, The Tipping Point, Bell House, London (curation)
2024 April – BLINK Room Share 5, Peckham, London (curation)
2024 Feb – Fierce Scandal, The Lido Stores, Margate
2023 September - BLINK Room Share 4, Peckham, London (curation)
2023 July - Jackson’s Painting Prize, Bankside, London
2023 July - The Goddesses On Sea, Lido Stores, Margate
2023 May - Windows & Thresholds, Bell House, London (curation)
2023 April - The Goddess (A Love Explosion), Terrace Gallery, London
2023 March - Colour/Print/Poetry, Slade, Colour & Poetry Symposium, online
2023 February - Studio 1:1 Members Show, London
2022 December - 2022 Painting Open, No Format Gallery, Deptford, London
2022 December - Art Car Boot Fair, It’s a Pattern Thing, online
2022 November - Renaissance 2022, Morphe Arts, London
2022 November - Swamp Legends, Terrace Gallery, London
2022 September - BLINK Room Share 3, Peckham, London (curation)
2022 July - iireal, curated by Laura Morton-Griffiths, London
2022 June - What Remains, Lemba, Cyprus
2022 End of May-end of June Art Residency, Cyprus College of Art, Pathos, Cyprus
2022 May - Electric and Live, Art Car Boot Fair, Coal Drop Yard, London
2022 May - SFSA Drawing Open, Deptford, London
2022 May - Ways Of Seeing Green, Dulwich Festival, Bell House, Dulwich, London
2022 April - Room Share 2, BLINK, Safehouse 1,Peckham, London (curation)
2022 January - Splash, Drip, Throw Visionary Art Collective, Brooklyn, NY, (virtual)
2021 Turps Leavers Show, Thames-side Gallery, London
2021 Room Share, BLINK, Safehouse 1, Peckham, London (curation)
2021 SFSA Open Painting 2021, No Format Gallery, Deptford, London
2021 Part I The Gathering, BLINK, AMP Gallery, Peckham, London (curation)
2021 The Colour & Poetry Symposium, Slade, online exhibition
2020 The Postcard Project, Artists Responding To
2020 ING Discerning Eye, online
Awards:
2018 KPP Prize for Art, Architecture and Design: Forms Assembled in the Light, Leeds 2006 Graduate School Masters Award, University College London
Public Collections:
2022 Cyprus College of Art, Lemba, Cyprus
2010 Corn Exchange Gallery, Edinburgh
2008 University College London Special Collections
Education:
2018-2021 Turps Banana, Postgrad Painting School, Off-Site Programme, 2006-2008 Slade School of Art, UCL, Masters of Fine Art, Sculpture, 2003-2006 Camberwell College of Arts, BA (Hons) Painting, First Class, 1987-1990 University College London, BA (Hons) History of Art, First Class
https://www.minangel.com/https://www.instagram.com/minangelartist/