Alba
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Exhibition dates: Monday, 18th August – Saturday, 30th August.
Opening Hours: Mondays – Fridays – 10am – 6pm. Saturday, 23rd August – 11am – 6pm. Closed Sunday, 24th August. Saturday, 30th August – 11am – 5pm.
Exhibition Statement: Alba Coningsby Gallery, London
Who is Alba?
Alba is not a narrative, but a return - a re-emergence of something once forgotten, something believed to be lost.
The figure of Alba emerged during a period of profound rupture in the artist’s life, following the loss of a long-held identity and career in medicine. Having dedicated years to healing and structure as a physician, the artist’s world was fundamentally altered after speaking out about sexual harassment within her profession. What followed was not only the end of a vocation, but a deep unraveling of faith - in systems, in justice, and, for a time, in human connection.
Out of that disintegration, a quieter, more resilient force began to surface. Alba is the name the artist gave to this presence - an aspect of the self that endured when everything else fell away. She carries unspoken grief, accumulated rage, and a quiet but persistent light born from the act of confronting both.
Alba is both witness and mirror.
This exhibition is not a resolution, nor a conclusion. It is a conversation in progress - unpolished, vulnerable, and intentionally unresolved. Through Alba, the artist explores themes of rupture, resilience, and the subtle power of continued presence.
Working with materials drawn from daily life - repetitive domestic rituals, bodily memory, the quiet disorder of the ordinary - the artist employs what she describes as brutal domestic realism. Not brutal in the sense of violence, but in its refusal to conceal truth. Within the domestic, she locates both tenderness and resistance.
The artist’s early environment, where silence was often mistaken for strength, shaped her relationship to expression. That silence informed how she moved, how she spoke, and how she created. Through this body of work, she begins the deliberate dismantling of that silence - slowly, piece by piece.
The photographs in Alba do not seek perfection. They are layered with memory, uncertainty, softness, and intensity. They are not intended to be admired, but to be felt.
While grounded in personal experience, the work extends beyond autobiography. Alba considers the complexities of identity - particularly in relation to womanhood, survival, and the reclamation of the body as a source of knowledge rather than an object. It invites viewers to explore selfhood not as something imposed by external systems, but as something discovered through awareness and presence.
A subtle current runs through the work - shift away from performance and toward authenticity. What emerges is a portrait of a human being defined not by function or role, but by their capacity to remain awake, embodied, and fully alive.
This is a personal journey - but not a solitary one. In sharing Alba, the artist creates a space in which others might recognize parts of themselves: quiet strength, the desire for meaning, and the choice to remain open, even in the face of loss.
Alba is not an answer. She is a beginning.
Visitors are invited to step into this space. To pause. To feel. To perhaps see themselves - clearly, and differently.
Message from Alba:
To Life, Always - Hi.
What if we were told: you are eternal?
Who am I? I am who I choose to become - Alive, evolving, unfolding into the person I was born to be.
This exhibition is an invitation to reflect on identity, purpose, and the enduring nature of the human spirit.
I speak in the language of the heart. Art is a universal dialect that transcends the need for proof. Through it, I offer messages intended to spark dialogue around the shared truths of being human.
I am a self-taught artist and a qualified medical doctor, holding two master’s degrees. Yet life itself - its questions, its ruptures, its quiet revelations - has been my greatest teacher.
Through those experiences, I have come to understand what it means to walk the path of becoming a better human being.
This is an invitation: Ask yourself, “Who am I?” The act of creation is not reserved for the few. It is the natural unfolding of presence and intention. Each of us holds the potential to shape meaning, to choose form, and to create from within.
This initiative follows the symbolic thread of personal journeys, offering a space where individual reflection contributes to a larger, collective purpose. Together, we build not only personal understanding, but a shared narrative - rooted in growth, compassion, and connection.
My selfies are not portraits of ego. They are visual records of a life examined. My artwork, made from the humblest materials, is meant to educate, invite, and illuminate the signs and symbols that guide us – if we choose to see them.
ALBA