Julie Bennett - Oxfordshire Artweeks

Julie Bennett uses #mirrorselfies to explore online identity, visibility and belonging through large-scale gestural oil painting.

Stories of Arrival and Belonging (Mirror Selfie Series) explores contemporary identity through painted interpretations of the mirror selfie. The artist works with expressive gesture, heightened colour, and the physical presence of oil paint to depict figures drawn from online source imagery. These portraits are not concerned with likeness alone, but with how identity is performed, displayed, and shaped through visibility. In an image culture where online presence functions as social currency, the mirror selfie becomes an act of participation and belonging. The smartphone appears within the frame as both prop and symbol, reflecting how individuals claim space within shared digital rituals. By removing environmental context and slowing down images designed for instant consumption, the work resists the polish of digital filters. Visible brushmarks assert a human presence beneath the curated surface, offering a tactile counterpoint to the frictionless image of the online self.

What to expect:
Painting