West London Artist Seven, Debut's Her Work in White City Studio's Auction [Interview]

Describing herself as a ‘Pyscho Expressionist’, 24-year-old Seven is most definitely a force to be reckoned with, as she is slowly tearing through the creative arts scene with her abstract portraits that have a clear resemblance to the late visual artist, George Condo. Dedicated, driven and always painting, Seven wanted to take her love for visual art to the next level, while paying homage to some of the men closest to her.

To bring her work to life, the West London resident decided to shave her hair off back in November 2021, this would then lead to her transforming the remains of her hair into the paint brush that would then be used to paint Seven original pieces of art in support of men’s mental health. Each piece of art would include Seven’s signature style which consist of chaos, striking colours and at times comedic value, examples of this can be seen throughout her work and were even featured last summer in the Bermondsey Project Space’s exhibition ‘Life After Lockdown’.

As we all know men’s mental health has been a taboo subject for many years and Seven wanted to shine a light on that by sitting down with seven different men and converting their emotions into unique abstract portraits, as a result of this Seven auctioned off these pieces at White City Studio's on Thursday 24th February, where she to raised an astonishing £1.5k on the night, all of the proceeds from the auction will be donated to the mental health charity CALM.

For those who aren’t aware of the Pyscho expressionist artist, take a moment to read 7 questions with Seven …

Did you always want to become an artist?

As a child I always aspired to become an artist because I loved being creative and painting, however the portrayal of an artist when I was growing up was that they were either poor or only celebrated once they were dead, so initially I did think to myself I need to do something else to make money. However, when I was at school, I was often top of my class when it came to art. One of my earliest memories goes back to when I entered an art competition at the age of seven. The competition was in association with the shoe shop Clarks, the task was to design my own shoe and I ended up winning, which was really exciting at the time, I was even gifted a pair of shoes from Clarks.

My interest in art goes even further back to when I was aged between 3-5 years old, I was constantly painting as a toddler. There was a time when my parents were asleep and alongside my cousin, we decided to squirt poster paints on the floor and all over ourselves. We got into a lot of trouble, but it showed how passionate I was about art, even from a young age.

What is the inspiration behind your unique name?

I’ve got this synesthesia, which is when you hear music, but you see shapes. Or you hear a word or a name and instantly see a colour. In my case I have a specific type of synesthesia , called ordinal linguistic personification, it’s basically where I'd give things personalities for example things like colours, shapes, numbers, days of the week would have their own personality. As a child I would give personalities to numbers all the way to infinity. I could tell you what kind of person they are, what they look like, how they dress and for me seven was the best. She's a good person, she’s female, she’s attractive, and powerful. Other numbers like six love her and would often look up to her.

Aside from my synesthesia, there have always been other signs directly to the number seven for example being Christian is something that is very important to me, and the number seven also holds significance in the bible, it’s everywhere, 7000 years, seven days, I was also born in 1997, my shoe size is seven and little brother couldn’t say my real when he was younger, so he coincidentally nicknamed me seven.

Did growing up in Watford influence you in any way?

As much as I loved growing up in Watford with its countryside/suburban feel, I often found it quite boring, and this often frustrated me. My family are from Watford, I have friends from Watford, however I never felt truly inspired and I often felt trapped when it came to expressing myself through art. I used to say this metaphor to my mum when I was living with her, ‘I feel like this liquid is being pushed through a sieve, but it’s being stopped at the surface’, in simpler terms I felt like my creativity was trying to come out but was constantly stopped by a fence. The fence was Watford and that’s why I had to move to London because there are so many more opportunities. From that initial image of my head being trapped, it inspired me to paint those exact thoughts and that’s how I came up with the psycho-expressionism term because I was painting exactly what was in mind and how I saw it.

Why did you choose to donate the proceeds of the auction to the mental health charity CALM?

I chose mental health first and foremost because that’s the most continuous battle that most people deal with, whether that’s my loved ones, my friends or myself, it’s something personal to me that I wanted to contribute to improving it in some shape or form. Women’s mental health is something that is more commonly spoken about and during this process I wanted to shine a light on men’s mental health, as it isn’t highlighted as much. I chose to raise money for the charity CALM because over the past 18 months the men I have been surrounded by have found comfort in expressing how they feel to me, from exes to cousins. As well as moving in with guys and now living in an all-male household has also influenced the way I look at men and how I want to represent them in my art. Additionally, a lot of the male artist I listen to have unfortunately died because of suicide or if they are alive, they often express their deep emotions through their music, these are all factors that further fuelled my inspiration. The phrases ‘Be a man’ and ‘Man up’ really frustrate me and I really wanted them to feel acknowledged.

This being your first ever auction, how would you describe the night at White City Studios?

It went exactly how I expected weirdly enough. Usually events are completely different vibes to how I imagine they will be but this is was literally my thoughts projected out into real life. Everyone was friendly, one thing I can’t stand is a dead crowd giving each other dirty looks. This was a lovely group of people. Really warmed my heart to see so many people show up for the cause, mastermind DJ Rico Mars also provided the perfect soundtrack for the night.

I’ve really pushed myself throughout this project, each piece is really different, and I wanted to tell a personal story and I hope that was reflected. Additionally, I had chosen this project to challenge myself, as I’ve never done portraits before, but wanted to convey that style of art into my work. None of the portraits look human, they look like hybrid humanoid characters based on everyone’s answer.

What can people expect from you in the future?

A lot more art, more exhibitions, and a project that I have in the pipeline that focuses mainly on women, as I want them to feel loved and appreciated through my art too.

Describe your art in one word:

Chaotic

For more details of Seven's work head over to her website or her Instagram

The auction was held at White City Studios through Soho Friends, a place which supports emerging talent and champions people from the local community. Sign up here :www.sohohouse.com/membership/soho-friends