8 Clarendon Cross | W11 4AP laceycontemporarygallery.co.uk
COVER IMAGE: Pool House (entrance) Oil on Canvas, 90x120cm, 2014
ROSS M BROWN
lives and works in Edinburgh. He studied on the BA Fine Art and MFA courses at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, and has continued his artistic practice since graduating in 2010. Ross' work channels the experience of architectural space through the history and process of painting. Derelict structures form the basis of his work - abandoned spaces that merge with nature. Buildings that melt back into the land, blurring the boundaries between man-made and nature. Buildings that echo a now dissolved past. The empty corridors and walls that once held so much are now a mere husk, slowly crumbling back into the earth. In making these works Ross is pursuing his fascination with the utopian desires of modernism, and how this ideal contrasts to the current status of modern buildings that have fallen out of official usage. His working process begins with a rigid perspective drawing as the initial framework. During the painting process, Ross describes - ”I use a number of chance based processes, such as poured, smeared or dripped paint alongside more carefully considered passages of painting. The finished pieces often become heavily layered, a mixture of chance-led marks that overlap and intersect with more carefully rendered sections.” Ross would like to thank Creative Scotland and the Dewar Arts Award for recent funding towards his practice.
St Peters Seminary- Form in Flux This earlier series of work includes paintings created between 2010 and 2012. It examines the history of St Peter's Seminary in Cardross. Built in the 1960's by the renowned architectural firm Gillespie, Kidd and Coia, the building received many accolades including a major award from the Royal Institue of British Architects. Constructed under a Modernist template (making particular reference to Le Corbusier's cathedral at Ronchamp), the building embodied a sense of idealism that was both architectural and religious.
“...chaotic processes are layered alongside more considered painterly responses, mirroring the fragile equilibrium of architecture and nature within the site.” - Ross M Brown
Wilderness, Night Oil on Canvas, 60x80cm, 2010, £2500
Merge Oil on Canvas, 145x115cm, 2011, SOLD
Ether Oil on Canvas, 122x178cm, 2012, ÂŁ6000
Teufelsberg - The Margins This body of work relates to the history of the former US Listening Station at Teufelsberg in Berlin where the artist travelled in Spring 2011. The Listening Station was built during the Cold War by the NSA as a means of intercepting radio transmissions from the East, however the site has lain vacant since the fall of the Berlin wall. Teufelsberg has become an impromptu venue nurturing the growth of certain subcultures who seek such unregulated sites as a way of escaping the regularity of more commonly frequented urban spaces.
“...my interest is in the aesthetic experience of these spaces; the weathered patinas, intermingling of architectural structure and organic matter, damp stains formed on walls and ceilings, all manner of blemishes and gatherings of material that are readily reproducible in oil paint.”
Hollows Oil on canvas over panel, 122 x 152 cm - 2013, £6000
Sway Oil on Canvas, 120x150cm, 2011 £6000
The Hacienda Oil on Canvas, 150 x 120 cm, 2011 £6000
Haludovo Hotel The series is made in response to the artists most recent trip to Croatia where he visited an abandoned 1970s luxury hotel. The Haludovo Hotel resort on Krk Island, Croatia, was designed by Modern-era architect Boris Magas.
“When exploring this space I was visually drawn to contrasts between the stark geometric forms of the structure and how these intermingled with graffiti adorning the walls, smashed up debris and overgrowing plant-life.” The Haludovo Hotel series represents Ross M Brown’s most recent work, and draws attention to how the viewer perceives, interacts with, and appraises the built environment around them.
Downtime Oil on Canvas, 150 x 200 cm, 2014, £8000
Pavilion (Interior) Oil, oil stick and spray paint on board 122x122cm, 2014 ÂŁ5000
Pool House (entrance) Oil on Canvas, 90x120cm, 2014 ÂŁ3000
Pool House (Slow Tide) Oil on Canvas, 150 x 200cm, 2014 ÂŁ8000
Pavilion Oil on Canvas,51x66cm, 2014 ÂŁ1500
ROSS M BROWN | CV Born 1986 Currently Living and Working from Edinburgh
AWARDS, PRIZES & RESIDENCIES: Finalist for the Griffin Art Prize 2012 Shortlisted for the Abbey Scholarship at the British School in Rome 2012
EDUCATION:
Arts Trust for Scotland Award 2011
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee:
Dundee Visual Arts Award 2011
2009 -2010 Master of Fine Art with Distinction
Featured in the Catlin Art Guide 2011
2004 – 2008 First Class BA (Hons) Fine Art
Nominated for Saatchi Gallery/Channel 4 New Sensations 2010 N.S Macfarlane Charitable Trust Award at RSA Annual Exhibition 2010
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: 2013 Art 13 with EB&Flow Gallery, Olympia Grand Hall, London. 2012 Griffin Art Prize, Griffin Gallery, London. 2012 Works on Paper, EB & Flow Gallery, London 2011 The Margins (Solo Exhibition), EB & Flow Gallery, London
Pittenweem Arts Festival Bursary Award 2010 Rendezvous Gallery/Linda Clark Nolan Landscape award at the RSA Student Exhibition 2008 Residency on the Isle of Lewis in conjunction with the above award, Summer 2008
2011 Since Tomorrow, EB & Flow Gallery, London 2010 Saatchi Gallery/Channel 4 New Sensations at the “House of the
PUBLICATIONS:
Nobleman” (Curated by Wolfe Von Lenkiewicz), Regents Park, London
Griffin Art Prize 2012, Booklet, Griffin Gallery, 2012
2010 RSA Annual Exhibition 2010 (invited artist), Royal Scottish Acad-
The Margins, Catalogue, EB&Flow Gallery, 2012
emy, Edinburgh
The Catlin Guide 2011 – New Artists in the UK, Book edited by Justin Ham-
2009 RSA New Contemporaries, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
mond/published by Catlin Holdings Ltd, 2011
2008 A Moskvitch in Havana, Tallinn Art Academy, Estonia
Saatchi New Sensations 2010, Booklet, Saatchi Gallery, 2010
2008 Trans-Local Motion, Shanghai Biennial, China
RSA Annual Exhibition 2010, Catalogue, Royal Scottish Academy, 2010
2008 RSA Students Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
RSA New Contemporaries 2009, Catalogue, Royal Scottish Academy, 2009