Love, melancholy and domesticity: Anna Calleja is a painter to watch
Emily Steer, Wallpaper*
December 2025
Anna Calleja fuses the intricacy of devotional paintings with the everyday trappings of contemporary life. In her new show at London’s Sim Smith, the artist presents an autobiographical selection of works in which she and other characters inhabit comfortable domestic settings. These scenes are cut through with moments of loneliness and tension, as figures zone out in front of phone screens and curl up in foetal positions. […]