Iona Hutley

ABOUT

Iona Hutley (b. 1991) is a British artist working predominantly within the realms of abstraction. She recently graduated from City & Guilds with an MA in Fine Art (2023–24).

Her work explores the sensual and visual aesthetics of the natural world, finding beauty in erosion, decay, and the imprint of time.

Working primarily on paper and large sheets of birch plywood, she develops her surfaces through various techniques such as layering, peeling, carving, and sanding. This process of accumulation and excavation allows each painting to emerge gradually and intuitively without any predetermined outcome, guided instead by material resistance and an intuitive rhythm. Her works reveal themselves through a process she describes as “emotional weathering”.

A central concern in her practice is the texture of emotion, and how it can be synthesised into a tactile visual language.

At its core, her practice is a means of navigating emotional imprints and how they sculpt our perception of reality. Through the practice of painting she seeks to harmonises mind and body; instinct with intent and intuition with intellect.

Her work reflects on our fragile and entangled relationship with the natural world, while also acting as a mirror, inviting us into a deeper dialogue with our own body and its interior emotional landscape.