Phoebe Leech
Biography
Phoebe Leech (b. 1999, Yorkshire) is a British figurative painter based between Oxford and London. Her large-scale portraits explore the human condition through vulnerable subjects, expressive gesture, and an unflinching attention to the body.
Leech’s practice is defined by gestural mark-making that intertwines identity, psychological tension, and emotional intensity. Currently completing her final year at City & Guilds of London Art School, she has developed her work in dialogue with artists such as Justin Mortimer and Jonathan Williams.
Her recent series, Male Domesticity, interrogates contemporary masculinity by capturing moments of quiet vulnerability edged with latent aggression. Figures are partially abstracted, and their bodies often appear scratched, blemished, or smeared with saturated pigment. The surface is fragmented, smeared with saturated colour, evoking both bodily presence and erasure, while inviting viewers to contemplate what is masked and what lingers beneath.