Zoe Louise Ridgway

b. 1992, Aberdare, South Wales

Zoe Louise Ridgway is a contemporary painter whose practice is an intimate interrogation of the body, specifically the complexities of living with connective tissue disorders and Marfan Syndrome. Born in Aberdare, South Wales, Ridgway’s work is deeply informed by the dichotomy of her lived experience: the clinical precision of a medical diagnosis versus the fluid, often unpredictable nature of a body in constant flux.

Rooted in the traditions of abstraction, Ridgway’s process is a physical negotiation with her medium. She utilizes the heavy, visceral qualities of oil paint alongside diverse mixed media to construct surfaces that feel both architectural and biological. Her work moves beyond mere representation of illness; instead, it seeks to map the “internal geography” of the self. Through a rhythmic cycle of layering and intuitive mark-making, she mirrors the biological processes of growth, scarring, and adaptation.

Her compositions often hinge on the tension between structural integrity and collapse. By manipulating the transparency of glazes and the density of impasto, Ridgway translates the microscopic reality of fibrillin deficiencies into a macroscopic visual language. The resulting canvases serve as emotional landscapes and topographies of resilience where the fragility of the human form is met with a defiant, tactile permanence.