Evie O’Connor examines, critiques, and ponders the confusing social climate we find ourselves in. Solely working from images found online, O’Connor reinforces the inaccessibility of privileged spaces and the alienation most people feel from their mere existence. While a select few get to experience the riches of these spaces in real life, the majority will only ever engage virtually through the content of others. Through constructing new scenes of escapism, her work plays with both our conscious and submerged desires to live in an Eden of beauty and satiated desires. The pool, a common symbol in her paintings, represents the select few who can afford to “float” freely in this environment, seemingly without effort. Evie O’Connor (b. 1993) was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, and currently lives and works in London. In 2020, she was awarded a place on the prestigious year residency at Sarabande: The Lee Alexander McQueen Foundation in East London. She received her Master's in painting from Glasgow School of Art in 2018, during which she was also an artist-in-residence at Dumfries House.