Abi Joy Samuel

Graduate Diploma 24/25
Black and white portrait of artist Abi Joy Samuel with hair up, a natural look, and Rembrandt lighting.
Installation by Abi Joy Samuel featuring a found textile retrieved from a London canal, with the artist walking behind in motion wearing black protective gloves
Installation by Abi Joy Samuel featuring a found textile retrieved from a London canal, with the artist walking behind in motion wearing black protective gloves
‘If God manifested in human form, would they appear as something horrifying or sublime?’ (2024) | Found textile from the canal (ready-made) | Matted dust blanket, polypropylene fabric, fishing hooks, plastic bags, scarves, suspended with fishing wire and hooks | 187 × 62 × 5 cm
Figurative expressionist painting in pastel and paint on canvas by artist Abi Joy Samuel
Figurative expressionist painting in pastel and paint on canvas by artist Abi Joy Samuel
“The Body in Layers II” (2024) | Acrylic and pastel on canvas | 135 × 195cm
Installation by artist Abi Joy Samuel, constructed from found objects and photographed in a studio setting. A deep black shadow casts the silhouette of a figure behind the work, evoking the 'shadow self' explored in the piece
Installation by artist Abi Joy Samuel, constructed from found objects and photographed in a studio setting. A deep black shadow casts the silhouette of a figure behind the work, evoking the 'shadow self' explored in the piece
'My Shadow Self' (2024) Head: Made from chicken wire and plaster of Paris, incorporating a dissected trainer and part of a found baby rocker. The hair is composed of floral fabric scraps and pieces of my sister’s old hair weave. Body: Constructed from chicken wire, copper sheeting, hand-stitched banana skins, metal studs, and parts of dissected black Nike trainers. Plinth: Built from laser-cut plywood, reassembled using elements from a dismantled found chair, a salvaged wooden shelf from Stamford Hill, and components of a found baby rocker. Dimensions: 165 x 56 x 67cm
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Abi Joy Samuel Portfolio
Installation by Abi Joy Samuel featuring a found textile retrieved from a London canal, with the artist walking behind in motion wearing black protective gloves
Figurative expressionist painting in pastel and paint on canvas by artist Abi Joy Samuel
Installation by artist Abi Joy Samuel, constructed from found objects and photographed in a studio setting. A deep black shadow casts the silhouette of a figure behind the work, evoking the 'shadow self' explored in the piece

About

For press and sales inquiries, please email abi@abijoysamuelart.com

Abi Joy Samuel (b. 1993, London) is an interdisciplinary artist working across sculpture, painting, installation, and photography. Her practice explores themes of diasporic identity, dislocation, and inherited memory, using repurposed and dissected materials as vessels of expression.

Samuel approaches the body as a sculptural phenomenon, not as a form to be clothed, but as a site of presence, absence, impact, and transformation. Her sculptural works often incorporate vehicle fragments, burnt metal, and salvaged debris, some dissected and reconfigured, others left as ready-mades. These objects, marked by time, are treated as carriers of story and hold traces of the past while being reframed as future relics.

In parallel, her paintings emerge from performance: working with contemporary dance, gesture, and facial expression, she creates personal movement vocabularies that are translated into layered, semi-abstract compositions. Across both media, she investigates the tension between visibility and erasure within cultural narratives.

Samuel’s work has been exhibited in London and internationally, including at Frieze Gallery in Mayfair and in the United States. She is currently studying for an MA in Sculpture 25/26 at the Royal College of Art and is a recipient of the Leverhulme Arts Scholarship.

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