Votive
SWAB Barcelona Art Fair
Stand 04
02 October - 05 October 2025
Collectors Preview: 02 Oct 4-5PM
Official Opening: 02 Oct 5-9PM
Elena Hoskyns-Abrahall
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SHAM Gallery is thrilled to announce the solo presentation ‘Votive’ by Elena Hoskyns-Abrahall at SWAB Barcelona Art Fair.
‘Votive’ will take place at Stand 04 and feature the site specific installation.
𝙑𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚
/ˈvəʊtɪv/
offered or consecrated in fulfilment of a vow.
Votive explores the planes of queer embodiment through devotional objects. Casting symbols which make reference to the adolescent experience, the artist uses the visual language of the votive offering to create icons of transmasculine becoming.
Precious materials such as silver, bronze, porcelain and glass intermingle with materials of traditional votive offerings like wax while pieces of furniture or folded environments become a reliquary of the self made. Sculptural objects meet jewellery meet artifact.
Elena’s practice currently sits in a place of transition, finding and excavating what it means to be in progress or in the midst of process. When a transgender person begins medical transition it is almost as if they are transported to a point of adolescence again. Voice cracks, skin changes, body odour, new hair growth and more emotions than you know what to do with are all textbook for the adolescent experience, but pair this with choice, with wanting, with needing, and you have second-adolescence. Where often there is embarrassment or shame, instead you find bliss.
Elena Hoskyns-Abrahall
b. Edinburgh, UK
Elena's practice spans a wide variety of ideas and methods however they work predominantly in sculpture and performance, looking at themes relating to Gender, Identity Politics and Queer Theory. A narrative undercurrent often runs through their work, which they use as a framework for exploring a greater message or school of thought. Story-telling through performance and objects is key to Elena's practice.
Looking at the world through the lens of abjection, Elena uses this as a tool for exploring their human experience. Whether it be through objects or performance, the bodily and the repulsive become excellent tools for exploring the dysphoric nature of the human condition.
In 2023 Elena graduated from the Royal College of Art with an MA in Sculpture. Recent exhibitions include: WORKOUT, OHSH Projects, The Bottle Factory, London, UK (2025), Ritual, SHAM Gallery, Collect Art Fair, Somerset House, London, UK (2025), The Floor is Lava, Bow Arts, London, UK (2025), Cure 3, Bonhams, London, UK (2025), Fuego De Tierra, Alice Black Gallery, London, UK (2024), Charming, SHAM Gallery, Collect Art Fair, Somerset House, London, UK (2024), Soft & Hard: Beyond Recognition and Queer Coding, The Art House UK, Wakefield, UK (2023); The Witch’s Cave, Plop Residency, London, UK (2023); Across-Over-Beyond, Space Station Sixty Five, London, UK (2023); Royal College of Art MA Degree Show, The Truman Brewery, London, UK (2023); Soft & Hard: Beyond Recognition and Queer Coding, Bermondsey Project Space, London, UK (2023); Raise Love, The Crypt Gallery, London, UK (2023); RCA WIP Show, Online (2022); We Won't Stop Showing, Set Woolwich, London, UK (2022); Too Much Fruit on the Cake, Take Courage Gallery, London, UK (2022); (2022); Artfem ‘Natura’, International Biennial of Macau, Albergue SCM, Macau, China (2020). Elena's work has been featured in The British Art UnCanon Archive, ‘a thing of beauty’ 92024), and the Wildstone Publication in collaboration with The Poorhouse Reading Rooms, Van Gogh House, Tate Archives, and the Freud Museum.
Elena was awarded The Gilbert Bayes Award in association with the Royal College of Art Sculpture Programme in 2023.
