Hettie Inniss: Rememories from the Floating World
GRIMM is delighted to announce the first solo exhibition of Hettie Inniss (b. 1999, Hackney, London, UK), whose work responds to multisensory influences and bodily experiences, capturing and preserving a moment inflected by scent, light, sound and memory. A recent graduate from the Painting MA course at the Royal College of Art, London (UK), Inniss was awarded the Sir Frank Bowling Scholarship in 2022.
Inniss is an artist whose practice questions the stability of self. Her distinctive canvases seek to create spaces with their own physics, their own truths and their own multidimensional perspectives. Inniss’ vibrant colour palette allows her to articulate memory and the act of remembering – capturing the afterburn of an image or the light seen behind closed eyes with a warmth and physicality that brings a bodily presence into her canvases.
Working from her involuntary memories, Inniss takes a Proustian approach to making, focusing on the unexpected moments where our senses are stimulated and the mind transports us to familiar or uncanny spaces. Inniss’ unique response to multisensory stimuli in her work allows her to explore how a memory might taste or sound, and how she can capture these ineffable sensations in paint and texture. Her practice tests and resists the boundaries of representational painting, connecting to Inniss’ belief in Black Fluidity as a liberating approach to life and art.
Inniss has participated in multiple group exhibitions, most recently The Painted Room – a group exhibition at GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL), curated by Caroline Walker. The Tate Collective also commissioned her to create an artwork in response to a piece in their collection in October 2023.
About the artist
Hettie Inniss is an artist and graduate from the University of Leeds, Art and Design BA Hons (2022) and the Royal College of Art on the Painting MA course (2022) where she graduated in September 2023. During her time at RCA Inniss was awarded the Sir Frank Bowling Scholarship (2022) which supports students from Black African and Caribbean diaspora heritage. She is also a recipient of the ColArt Windsor and Newton Bursary (2023). The Tate Collective has also commissioned her to create an artwork in response to a piece in their collection for October 2023.
Inniss’ most recent exhibitions include: The Painted Room at GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL); I Don't Paint What I See at Berntson Bhattacharje, London (UK); Somewhere In Between at Hew Hood Gallery, London (UK); Fluidity at The Night Café, London (UK); RBA Rising Star at Royal Over-seas League, London (UK) and Impressions at Subtitle Labs, London (UK).
