Alexandria Coe’s ‘Lovers’ chronicles the pain and healing process of heartbreak

For artist Alexandria Coe, last November was the beginning of a new chapter. Her book of drawings, Lovers, had just been released, and the Londoner was finally happy in her own company. A visual poem about healing from heartbreak, the drawings cover a universal but also undeniably personal subject. ‘Love is an enduring topic in all forms of art, because people have always had a hard time figuring it out,’ she says.

Fresh from the Parco dei Sesi residency on the tiny Sicilian island of Pantelleria, Coe is now back in town. The artist is looking forward to catching up with friends ‘without any technology involved.’ Yet, since returning from her two-and-a-half week stay on the volcanic island near North Africa, she still remembers the Mediterranean sun sinking into the horizon over Tunisia every evening.

Parting ways with her former partner a year-and-a-half ago changed the course of Coe’s life quite suddenly. She’d already started making intimate drawings of nude couples near the end of her relationship, but the vulnerability of a break-up gave her the courage to follow that path. ‘Linguistics sometimes get in the way,’ she says, about her decision to channel her feelings with minimalistic drawings in charcoal. 

Black Ink Projects released Coe’s collection of more than fifty drawings at the end of a globally chaotic year. The drawings’ visual looseness gives the figures an anonymity, which renders them devoid of specific characters. ‘Drawing has been my outcome after a heartbreak, just as literature or music is for others.’ 

Coe is ready to put her phone away to meet people in person, but at a time when yearning for a touch was a collective sentiment, the digital realm offered her a platform for self-expression. Once she began posting her work on Instagram, the drawings attracted more than 60,000 followers. Their embodiment of a tactile intimacy filled the gap caused by a sudden emotional distancing. ‘My work is about intangible feelings, but the process is tactile and instantaneous,’ she explains.

Deep down, the affection she captures in a couple lying naked together, or tightly caressing one another, is about estrangement. ‘I was drawing the intimacy that wasn’t there for me – that lack of communication prompted other feelings for different people,’ Coe says, describing the response she’s received on social media. 

She thinks each image taps into another element of emotion. ‘Learning curve’ is her way of explaining every relationship, and ‘a new person may reflect a side of us that we don’t love [ourselves].’ The guilt of a break-up was eased by committing to poetically simple lines and penetrating juxtapositions. Fitting for an artist, she still prefers love in its every stage over running away from it to avoid the potential pain. ‘I wouldn’t have developed into the new person that I now am,’ she explains.