Image: Rhodes, London
According to the exhibition's stated framing, the series of five original paintings explores the complex experience of girlhood through feminine identity, adolescent anxiety and the search for belonging. The presentation marks American artist Zoe Hawk's first solo exhibition in the UK.
The exhibition opens with a reception on 1 October 2026 from 6–8pm and runs from 2 to 31 October at RHODES Contemporary Art, 65 Great Portland Street, London.
The paintings offer candy-coloured, nostalgic vignettes of girls brushing their hair, camping and enjoying a theme-park ride. Their scenes evoke a distinctly 1950s–60s sensibility through analogue activities and a seemingly uncomplicated view of childhood, removed from the complexities of the digital age.
As time is spent with the works, however, a sense of unease begins to emerge through small details Hawk paints into these wholesome scenes. The figures inhabit self-contained worlds, caught in intimate dramas against bold backdrops that feel theatrical and surreal, suspended somewhere between childhood and adulthood and between fairy tales and the dark realities of womanhood.
