Laura Footes, a British artist living with chronic illness, opened her solo exhibition “Anamnesis” at Shrine NYC in early December 2024. Her paintings feature translucent, ethereal bodies in hallucinogenic landscapes, exploring themes of entrapment, escape, and the porous, temporal nature of the body. Footes, who has Crohn’s disease, draws on her hospital experiences and was discovered by Tracey Emin in 2022 after Emin saw her work on social media. Emin later mentored Footes at TKE Studios in Margate and curated her solo show “A Healing Dream” at Carl Freedman Gallery in late 2024.
The article matters because it highlights an emerging artist whose work directly addresses disability and chronic illness—a perspective often underrepresented in contemporary art. Footes’s mentorship with Tracey Emin, a major figure in British art, and her subsequent exhibition at Shrine NYC signal growing institutional and market interest in her practice. The piece also underscores how personal trauma and physical vulnerability can drive powerful visual storytelling, resonating with broader conversations about inclusivity and the body in art.