Naomi Wallens - Gimme Shelter

Naomi Wallens is a British contemporary multidisciplinary artist working with painting, sculpture and photography. Self-taught as a street artist, Wallens is becoming well known in the art world for her provocative artwork exploring the subtleties of societal pressures of conformity and the profound impact this has on our ability to feel connected to our own self.

Drawing on her own experiences as a woman and mother and the experiences of those that she collaborates with, Wallens’ works are unorthodox products of visual story-telling that fight and challenge societal injustices and champion empowerment and love. Wallens pushes her emotional boundaries to become the subject in many of her painted works and directly makes use of the female form using her own body in many of her sculptures to illustrate the stories she sets to tell.

Wallens’ latest work has evolved from containing a strong autobiographical element in examining her own experiences of happiness (and the not so happy ones) to observing human behaviours and emotions within the framework of the society in which we live today, depicting subjects at odds with their often glamorous appearance.

Before launching her career as an artist Wallens followed a conventional academic route, eventually bagging herself a business qualification before embarking on a career in the corporate world. Feeling disillusioned and empty with her pre-conditioned life, this fuelled her ever-rebellious inner self to go on a courageous and often painful journey of self-discovery as an artist.

Operating under her former artistic alter ego SHYGUY, which saw her delve into the world of street art working within the graphic framework of conformity, vulnerability and personal experience, unlocking her passions, an avalanche of creativity soon followed. Wallens went on to build a vast body of design meets art wonders featuring several installations, her own body part sculptures, large scale paintings and an array of alluring Objet D’Art – the collection formed her first solo show ‘Behind Closed Doors’ in 2018.

This was followed in 2020 when Wallens debuted a new collection at Startnet, The Saatchi Gallery in October of that year. Wallens wanted to capture the mood of the World during ‘lockdown’, representing the internal and external battles that many of us have in the modern world to love and be loved for who we are, exploring the effects of societal programming and cultural conditioning, captivating the viewer with soul-stirring intrigue.
The Saatchi Gallery collection showcases a series of glamorous, powerful and iconic Photographic Art pieces, entitled; ‘Race for Beauty’, ‘Artificial Love’ and ‘Save Yourself’, other new works featured in the collection are the ‘Hot Ass’ Sculpture range – paying homage to Wallens’ inner rebel whilst giving her body part sculptures a new and ever evolving narrative and also featuring are some excellent examples of Wallens’ early work as a street artist.

Wallens’ work has now become a firm favourite with international high net worth private art collectors and interior designers alike.