Eva Sykes is a multidisciplinary artist working with techniques such as painting, sculpture, stop frame animation, moving image and installation. Using these mediums, she explores ideas of the self, the absurdity and humour in the darkness in life and the duality in human nature. Her work has a very deliberate hand crafted quality using traditional painting and sculpture techniques to reference classical artwork which is set against the uncanny imagery to create work which has a visceral quality and can be both grotesque and ethereal at the same time. She also uses juxtapositions to contrast seemingly comforting imagery against disturbing elements to expose contradictions in life and in people.
Her work is influenced by medieval art, as well as mythology and folklore. This familiar historical imagery is combined with nostalgic, kitsch and surreal elements to evoke an unsettling feeling and a nightmarish quality. Her work aims to convey a strange joy or comfort from the nostalgic early 2000s elements and the deep associations people have to this imagery, combined with unsettling elements to create a contrast, evoking a sense of dread, unease and discomfort in the viewer. She often uses human animal hybrids in her sculpture and painting to expose the darker sides of human nature in the modern world and capture the zeitgeist, presented as immersive installations with moving image and sound.
EDUCATION:
MA Fine Art: Central Saint Martins, University of The Arts London, 2023 - 2025
BA (Hons) Filmmaking: University of the West of England, 2019 - 2022
'EXI', The Crypt Gallery, London, 2026
'MORE CARNAGE', Asycd, digital exhibition, 2025
'Masking', The Good Rice, London, 2025
'Interval', Central Saint Martins, London, 2025
'Takeaway', The Good Rice, London, 2025
'Rustling Beneath Words', Five Years, London, 2024
‘TBF’, Hypha Studios, London, 2024
'Interim Show', Central Saint Martins, London, 2024
‘POTLUCK’, 44AD artspace, Bath, 2024
FESTIVAL SELECTIONS
‘Babies’, éphémère (Honorable Mention), 2025
‘Babies’, London Experimental, 2025
‘For the Birds’, SI-FAN film festival, 2025
‘Babies’, The Sur-REEL & Uncanny Film Fest, 2024
‘For the Birds’, First Cut Youth Film Festival, 2024
‘For the Birds’, London Experimental, 2024
‘For the Birds’, Bristol Radical Film Festival, 2023