This is a show that feels deeply feminist - not in a slogan-splashed-across-a-T-shirt way, but in its unwavering dedication to unveiling the gore of self-discovery, writes Ruby Mitchell.
Images courtesy of The Nomad Salon
October: a cold but sunny afternoon in Primrose Hill. The sky was startlingly clear, the kind of crisp blue that sharpens the edges of things. The air had that unmistakable charge of autumn - a little electric, a little eerie - like the season was holding its breath. A wind-carried chill slipped through the seams of my jacket as I threaded my way past countless pastel townhouses. I arrived at The Nomad Salon, a pop-up gallery with an unassuming presence (so discreet, it seemed almost incidental). But inside, the air was thick with intention. Patricia Ortiz’s UK solo debut, Alchemy of Womanhood, was waiting, quiet but forceful. This intimate space became the perfect cauldron for Ortiz’s exploration of womanhood – of mental health and self-reclamation. At a time when the veil between worlds is said to be thin, she invites us into a space where transformation and power come alive - a season of witches, indeed.
Installation shots courtesy of The Nomad Salon
This exhibition does not flinch from vulnerability. Twelve haunting self-portraits command the white walls of the gallery, each pulsing with an emotional rawness that feels intensely personal yet somehow universal. Ortiz's brushstrokes carry the weight of experience, capturing the substance of womanhood - the grit, the transmutation, the hidden alchemy of daily life. The resonance of her work lingers like a quiet kind of magic.
Stepping into the gallery, you’re immediately struck by Ortiz’s technical mastery. Her oil paintings, steeped in Baroque influence, evoke the chiaroscuro of Caravaggio and the opulence of Rubens - but are distinctly her own. Ortiz grounds these influences in modern reality, her figures shimmering with life. From beneath their veils, they watch you, daring you to meet their gaze. The canvas becomes a doorway, leading to a space where both strength and fragility coexist. With an MA in Art Therapy, Ortiz channels her deep understanding of the psyche into her oils, Alchemy of Womanhood becoming a therapeutic journey - steadfast in its exploration of the female experience.
“I portray trauma’s and fears as ghost-like entities that reside in the subconscious … the entity (memory) represented can no longer damage the present.”
The witch archetype, rooted in both myth and psychology, straddles the line between chaos and wisdom. In Jung’s framework, the witch is a potent manifestation of the shadow and anima, symbols of repressed aspects of the psyche. Jung’s neat, gendered boxes, of course, have sparked more than a few feminist eye-rolls: "The primordial image, or archetype, is a figure—be it a daemon, a human being, or a process—that constantly recurs in the course of history and appears wherever creative fantasy is freely expressed." he writes. "Essentially, therefore, it is a mythological figure. [...] In each of these images there is a little piece of human psychology and human fate, a remnant of the joys and sorrows that have been repeated countless times in our ancestral history.”
The witch, therefore, holds a duality: feared for her ruination yet revered for her sagacity, mirrored in the archetype of the Great Mother: both nurturing and terrifying. Reclaimed in modern feminist discourse, the sorceress becomes a figure of resistance and self-definition unbound by patriarchal narratives. Ortiz uses this archetype not just to explore repression, but as a form of catharsis – a way to metamorphose personal trauma into something universal. There’s rage here, but also liberation.
The witch is one of the most enduring and potent archetypes in art and literature, a figure that has captivated imaginations for centuries. From Dürer’s wild-haired, goat-riding crones to Goya’s depictions of the witches sabbath, the enchantress has long been a delightful emblem of defiance and transformation – shapeshifting her way through centuries of suspicion, all while stirring the pot (sometimes literally). Patricia Ortiz’s Alchemy of Womanhood taps directly into this rich vein, reclaiming the witch not as a figure of terror, but as a symbol of self-actualisation.
From left to right: Patricia Ortiz, The Judgement, 2024, Mother's Gaze, 2024
In art history, the witch’s narrative took an enthralling turn in the twentieth century, especially with the rise of Surrealism. Artists like Leonor Fini, Leonora Carrington and Dorothea Tanning reimagined her as an icon of repossession. Patricia Allmer, a leading scholar and curator of Surrealism, notes that for women surrealist artists the genre of self-portraiture is a “way of coming into representation”, a process where the artist is both subject and object, seen through her own gaze rather than that of an external observer. The self-portrait allows its creator to reclaim their identity, disregarding a patriarchal perception. By drawing on alchemical symbols, these artists engage with ancient practices of transformation, viewing the spiritual and material processes of alchemy as metaphors for their own journeys of self-reclamation. American art historian and educator Whitney Chadwick notes the fantastical scenarios present in surrealist work provide spaces for reimagining social orders and identifying with “moments prior to historical time and/or outside the ‘civilized’ [sic] cultural spaces identified with patriarchy”: by reworking these notions of the witch archetype, women have found a space within Surrealism to envision alternative narratives of selfhood.
Ortiz aligns herself with this lineage. Her witches are neither grotesque outcasts nor ethereal goddesses - they are deeply human. In The Lonely Hunter (2024), the witch archetype is reframed not as a figure of evil, but as one of empowerment. Ortiz's witches are emblematic of women’s journeys through pain, shame, and ultimately, rebirth. There’s a fierceness in their tenderness, a potency that comes from embracing one’s darkest, most hidden self. The witch becomes a mirror - reflecting not just the ache of womanhood, but the potential for renewal.
This is a show that feels deeply feminist - not in a slogan-splashed-across-a-T-shirt way, but in its subtle dedication to unveiling the gore of self-discovery. Patricia Ortiz is a name that collectors and galleries will want to watch closely. Her ability to combine technical mastery with emotional depth places her at the forefront of contemporary figurative painting. There is an authenticity to her voice that feels rare but extremely necessary.
October itself is an alchemical moment, each falling leaf carries with it a sigh of transmutation - a reminder that decay holds the promise of renewal. In this season of shadows, Ortiz's work is an invitation to step into symbolism of the feminine psyche, where the self, the shadow, and perhaps the even witch all wait to be uncovered.
