Ballroom, 2007, oil on canvas, 185 x 165 cm
Coffee, 2007, oil on canvas, 185 x 165 cm
Minibar, 2007, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm
Showroom 2, 2008, oil on canvas, 185 x 165cm
Zero fatalities, 2009, oil on canvas, 90 x 90 cm
Cocktail Hour, 2005, oil on canvas, 185 x 165 cm
Bauble,2010, oil on canvas, 45 x 60 cm
Terminal, 2010, oil on canvas, 150 x 170
Dog in sailor outfit
Phenomena Project
Social Progress Through Contemporary Art
Jo Wilmot

I’m interested in the way shiny newness becomes tarnished, in how fast a longed for item or experience switches from desirable to banal. We live in a culture of glossy images, objects and items and we are led to believe that the next purchase or cocktail will make us complete. The cycle of mindless consumerism relies on our belief that ‘new’ is always better.

My paintings explore the way in which we define ourselves through consumption and the easy, empty seductiveness of consumer culture – it’s all about surface, being seen at the ‘right’ places, desirably dressed, looking gorgeous and glossy with gleaming white teeth. But life is messier than films and advertising and however much we pursue this illusion, it inevitably falls short. We all have some memory of the disapointment we felt when we couldn’t open the window in the five star hotel and the sadness when we scuffed our expensive new shoes. That feeling of slight emptiness, claustrophobia and frustration is what I am aiming to achieve in my work. The seductiveness of paint and the ‘hand-made’ aesthetic of gestural painting gives a tension between the execution and the subject matter, undermining the desirability of the luxurious object depicted