FBA
Futures
Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours * Royal Society of British Artists * Royal Society of Marine Artists * Royal Society of Portrait Painters * Royal Institute of Oil Painters * New English Art Club * Pastel Society * Society of Wildlife Artists * of Portrait Painters * Royal Institute of Oil Painters * New English Art Club * Pastel Society * Society of Wildlife Artists * Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours * Royal Society of British Artists * Royal Society of Marine Artists * Royal Society of Portrait Painters * Royal Institute of Oil Painters * New English Art Club * Pastel Society * Society of Wildlife Artists * of Portrait Painters * Royal Institute of Oil Painters * New English Art Club * Pastel Society * Society of Wildlife Artists * Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours * Royal Society of British Artists * Royal Society of Marine Artists * Royal Society of Portrait Painters * Royal Institute of Oil Painters * New English Art Club * Pastel Society * Society of Wildlife Artists * of Portrait Painters * Royal Institute of Oil Painters * New English Art Club * Pastel Society * Society of Wildlife Artists * Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours * Royal Society of British Artists * Royal Society of Marine Artists * Royal Society of Portrait Painters * Royal Institute of Oil Painters * New English Art Club * Pastel Society * Society of Wildlife Artists *
20 – 25 January 2014
The Federation of British Artists (FBA) was established in 1961 and is made up of eight leading art societies that individually go back as far as 1823. With each society exhibiting annually at Mall Galleries, the FBA has continued to showcase the best in contemporary figurative art. Looking to continue as its societies began, with young and promising artists drawn together under a common purpose, the FBA looks to highlight each year’s art graduates with the exhibition FBA Futures. Selected from across the country by FBA members, this year 24 outstanding artists will exhibit their work, painting a picture of the strengthening influence figurative art has on emerging artists today.
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Catalogue sponsored by
‘one to watch’ prize from
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Exhibiting Artists
Sarah Bold
4
Daniel Linden
16
Lauren Bowman
5
Michaela Manning
17
Elysia Byrd
6
Kate McAllan
18
James Cowland
7
Rachel McKean
19
Robina Doxi
8
Eti Meacock
20
Yvonne Gogan
9
Eigil Nordstrom
21
Adele Henderson
10
Marie Claire Redman
22
James Heslip
11
Ishai Rimmer
23
Mackenzie Hodge
12
Kathleen Skiverton
24
Sam Houston
13
Ian Tricker
25
Leekyu
14
Franke Vassell
26
Jasmine Leonard
15
Alice Woodhouse
27
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1. Sarah Bold Waterhole Oil on board 30 x 38 cm ÂŁ1,900 Graduated from Wimbledon College of Art with a BA in Fine Art Painting in 2013, following training at Marleston College, Australia. Recent exhibitions include No Place in Particular solo, Le Grange Gallery, London 2012; Bittersweet group show, Real World Gallery, London 2011. Shortlisted for the 2013 Clyde & Co. and WIP/HSF Art awards. Bold aims to convey the onset of climate change in her paintings, creating barren landscapes where life appears precarious and dictated by environment. With her bleak expanses Bold aims to draw attention to the daily incremental change of climate which will only be recognised in retrospect. 4
2. lauren bowman Cynopetrea Town Square Ink & fluid ink on paper 70 x 90 cm £2,000 Graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with a BA in Painting in 2013. Recent exhibitions include Skeletal Helter Skelter, Edinburgh College of Art 2013; Trans Atlantic, School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 2012. Future exhibitions include Royal Scottish Academy: New Contemporaries, The Mound, Edinburgh 2014. Bowman sees her work as akin to written fiction; populated with anthropomorphic characters, she has these parody human experience, creating trivial narratives across her paintings. These trivialities are then leant significance through Bowman’s elaborate and obsessive ornamentation, which decoratively draws her protagonists together. Often separate works share continuous and divergent narratives between them. 5
3. Elysia byrd Riding Yak Oil on canvas 65 x 75 cm £900 Graduated from Wimbledon College of Art with a BA in Fine Art Painting in 2013. Recent exhibitions include The Woon Prize for Painting & Sculpture, Gallery North, Northumbria 2013; Death of a Tourist, Graveney & Meadow, London 2013. Prizes include ‘Judges Discretionary Award’ The Woon Prize for Painting & Sculpture 2013. Byrd is interested in the Western perception of the exotic, seen through a tourist’s eyes abroad and through objects that quickly become souvenirs or ‘trophies’ once brought home. Byrd builds her paintings in layers, drawing elements of disparate cultures together within the canvas as a comment upon the fluidity of national boundaries in the contemporary world. 6
4. james cowland Crunch Oil on canvas 50 x 75 cm ÂŁ750 Graduated from University of Brighton with a BA in Fine Art Painting in 2013, following a Foundation in Art & Design at Central Saint Martins, London. Recent exhibitions include The Affordable Art Fair, London 2013; Naked Tea CafĂŠ, Brighton 2012-13; Drawn, Dorset Gardens Methodist Church, Brighton 2012. Cowland explores human conflict in his work, using both current and historic warfare. His current line of paintings look at the development of technologies and structures for the purpose of defence. Cutting edge one day and irrelevant the next, these buildings are symbolic of the frighteningly quick development of threats that force us to defend today. 7
5. robina doxi Fate Mixed media on canvas 200 x 250 cm £7,500 Graduated from Camberwell College of Art with an MA Fine Art in 2013, following previous training at CATS College, Cambridge and Gerlesborgskolan, Sweden. Recent exhibitions include Hide Gallery, London 2013; Space Station Sixty-Five, London 2013; Boxpark Gallery, London 2013; Beaconsfield Gallery, London 2012; Hannah Barry Gallery, London 2012. Architectural drawing, geometry and mapping are recurring themes in Doxi’s work, manipulated to present the idea of the individual within the great machine of society. Doxi aims to bring aspects of classical painting into a conversation with more contemporary elements through the mix of imagery, style and material in her work. 8
6. yvonne gogan dormition Oil on canvas 55 x 45 cm ÂŁ950 Graduated from Glasgow School of Art with a BA in Fine Art in 2013. Previous exhibitions include MacMillan Cancer Support Art Show, Glasgow 2013. In her most recent body of work Gogan has focused on the power of religious art in the Baroque era, basing her painting on devotional art and practices. Transforming and abstracting her inspiration Gogan reimagines her historical influences, particularly drawing on characteristics of the sublime. With no obvious narrative, her paintings aim to explore the tension between realism and obscurity. 9
7. adele henderson Heritage Oil on canvas 133 x 92 cm £1,250 Graduated from Heatherley’s School of Art with a Portraiture Diploma in 2013. Prizes include Heatherley’s Commendation 2013, Royal Society of Sculptor’s Commendation 2013; Ondaatje Prize 2012. Henderson aims to balance precision with the ethereal, unlocking the spaces between these planes with her work. She looks to harness atmosphere this way, developing her style through drawing from life and portraiture. 10
8. james heslip Fish out of Water; edition of 3, 2 available Reduction process wood-cut 65 x 36 cm £250, £200 unframed Graduated from Kingston University with a BA in Fine Art following training at Worcester College of Art and Design. Recent exhibitions include S & M, The Swan Space, Kingston 2013; In Praise of Sport, The Book the Boys of Wano Built, Hayward Gallery, London 2012; The Few and Far Between, The Rug Factory, London 2011. Unconventional personal experience is the driving force behind Heslip’s work; he documents observations and unexpected situations using animal symbolism, creating illustrated metaphors. Un-institutionalised art is a large influence, with the notion that art in its original setting retains a pureness. 11
9. mackenzie hodge Z-40 Acylic on canvas 100 x 120 cm £850 Graduated from Kingston University with a BA in Fine Art following a foundation at University of Creative Arts Maidstone. Recent exhibitions include Winter SEE Artists, Art Pull Gallery, Tunbridge Wells 2013; Uber Alles, The Gallery on the Corner, London 2012; Artiface, Catto Gallery, London 2012. Painted portraiture is the obsessive focus of Hodge’s work – being able to re-create and immortalise the image of a person. Found imagery is a strong influence, resulting in series such as Los Once, a collection of portraits of the Nacos / drug lords of Mexico. Three of these subjects have since been arrested evolving into the series Captured, of which Z-40 is one. 12
10. sam houston Persist Oil on canvas 76 x 101 cm £545 Graduated from Falmouth University with a BA in Fine Art in 2013. Recent exhibitions include A Recollection solo, Mid Cheshire College, Cheshire 2013; Edinburgh Art Fair, Edinburgh 2013; Rising Stars, Coombe Gallery, Dartmouth 2013. Prizes include 3rd Prize People’s Choice Award, VAC Gallery Open, Northwich 2013. Houston uses a combination of paint and print in his work, aiming to create a sense of history by layering different media. History is important as Houston is concerned with portraying our understanding of ‘home’ and how this familiarity is challenged with the passing of time. He uses images of decaying architecture – places that were once safe but have withered with age – and introduces the human figure to symbolise this fragility. 13
11. LEEKYU Hardness Mixed media & acrylic on canvas 190 x 120 cm ÂŁ2,600 Graduated from Chelsea College of Art with an is currently studying there for an MRes in Arts include solo show, 5th Base Gallery, London Gallery, London 2013; Hyundai Gallery, Hongik
MA in Fine Art in 2013 and Practice. Recent exhibitions 2013; Super Impose, Crypt University, Seoul 2010.
Leekyu is concerned with expressing the experience and history of the human body through his depictions. Feeling that the body is imbued with countless memories, Leekyu looks to convey them through his layering of ink and paint on the surface of the canvas, building life kept within the body through the lines and shapes of form. 14
12. jasmine leonard Vivarium Oil, spray paint & acylic on board 85 x 70 cm £1,495 Graduated from Wimbledon College of Art with a BA in Painting in 2013. Recent exhibitions include Clyde & Co Community Project Art Awards, London 2013; Affordable Art Fair Graduates, London 2013; solo show, Cloupe, London 2013; Float Art, Dixie Queen, London 2013. Prize nominations include Prunella Clough Painting Prize, Hans Brinker Budget Trophy 2013. Leonard investigates the Western gaze of the exotic, or rather our fabrication of what we expect from the supposedly wild and untamed. She examines our contrived wilderness – the botanical garden – and what we imagine to be sublime and true ‘nature’. Through photographic styling, her paintings reveal ‘negative space’ in the form of fluorescence – “a synthetic threat to the illusion of the natural”. 15
13. daniel linden Through the Cedar Trees Oil on linen 240 x 170 cm £3,500 Graduated from Newcastle University with a BA in Fine Art in 2013. Recent exhibitions include Saatchi’s New Sensations, Victoria House, London 2013; Promise & Disaster, University of Fine Arts, Vienna 2012; Speech in a Dead Language solo, Newcastle Long Gallery 2011. Linden’s work deliberately avoids any overt narrative; he aims to create a visual tension within his paintings – a suggestion or invocation of action that has just occurred or is impending. Openings that hint at further or hidden space frequent his compositions, such as doorways, screens and reflections, adding to this feeling of apprehension and possibility. 16
14. michaela manning Lion Watching Acrylic 24 x 31 cm ÂŁ600 Graduated from Wimbledon College of Art with a BA in Fine Art Painting in 2013. Recent exhibitions include Herbert Smith Freehills, London 2013; Clyde & Co, London 2013; People: A Figurative Exhibition curated by Lemon Art, Bankside Gallery, London 2013; New Artist Fair, Candid Arts Trust, London 2013. Manning casts herself in the role of an observer of the everyday, painting urbanised or empty space as places of private trajectories. She tries to draw out the residue of what has gone on before in these spaces, the sense of personal experience or encounters. Figures appear unmoving and detatched, suggestive of inward reflection for which the surrounding landscape provides a context. 17
15. kate mcallan Winter Box Oil & gouache on Japanese plywood 60 x 53 cm ÂŁ850 Graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with an MA in Fine Art with History of Art & Painting in 2013. Recent exhibitions include Macmillan Art Exhibition, Bonhams, Edinburgh 2013; This Land, Travelling Gallery, throughout Scotland 2013; Consider the Veil, Whitespace Gallery, Edinburgh 2013. McAllan is concerned with the seemingly impossible search for silence in a world where we are constantly over-stimulated. Aiming to create spaces for contemplation, she explores white and darkness, creating psychological landscapes to engage the viewer into a quiet and meditative state. 18
16. rachel mckean Iona Shore Acrylic on board 80 x 62 cm ÂŁ1,800 Graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with an MA in Fine Art in 2013. Recent exhibitions include RSA Open, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh 2013; Festive Exhibition, The Ormiston Institute, Melrose 2013; Landforms, Andrew Grant Gallery, Edinburgh 2013. McKean takes her inspiration from the plants and shorelines of the West Coast of Scotland. Her aim is to achieve highly realistic images using meticulous detail, yet reveal a painterly quality through the evidence of her time-consuming process. McKean does not build up layers, but builds out from a point on the canvas, playing with the translucency of paint to give a luminous quality to her colours. 19
17. eti meacock Pygoscelis antarcticus, Hydrurga leptonyx Oil on board 61 x 70 cm £1,200 Graduated from Brighton University with a BA in Fine Art in 2013. Recent exhibitions include ONCA Gallery, Brighton 2013. Since graduating Meacock has trained with her marionettes on the Puppet Theatre Barge, London. Animals are at the heart of Meacock’s practice, stemming from several months spent in the jungle of Nepal. Thinking of animals in terms of actions rather than set characteristics, Meacock’s paintings create visual metaphors that represent our living experience of the natural world. 20
18. Eigil Nordstrøm Sundial Studio Oil on canvas 124 x 140 cm £1,150 Graduated from The Art Academy with a Fine Art Diploma in Painting in 2013 and is currently studying for an MA at City & Guild’s School of Art. Recent exhibitions include Art in Action duo show, Burgh House, London 2013; solo show, Netherhall House, London 2012. Nordstrøm explores the element of time in painting through the ephemeral qualities of observation. His painting responds to the constant change of mood, light and colour of what surrounds us, working upon the idea that he is painting the perishable. 21
19. marie-claire redman Great Expectations Oil 164 x 133 cm ÂŁ5,000 Graduated from Glasgow School of Art with a BA in Painting & Printmaking in 2013. Recent exhibitions include Bar Ten, Glasgow 2013; Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London 2013. Redman accredits much of her creative instinct to time spent living in Brussels and uses her painting to explore the use of objects and symbolism in the art of Belgian Surrealists as well as Old Masters. She is concerned with the history associated to traditional painting practice and her selection of objects and costume is deliberate, playing on our traditional and contemporary associations to provoke reaction. 22
20. ishai rimmer Garden Oil on canvas 177 x 234 cm ÂŁ14,000 Graduated from Slade School of Art with an MA in Fine Art Painting in 2013, following training at Goldsmiths College. Recent exhibitions include Self, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Mall Galleries, London 2013; Memory & Desire Part I, The Violet Hour, London 2013; Jotta Emerging Artists, Affordable Art Fair, London 2013. Prizes include Purchase Prize, Provost Portrait Competition, University College London 2013. Rimmer casts himself as both the subject and the object in his work, aiming to deconstruct and recreate himself and those around him. By looking narcissistically at scenes of everyday life, Rimmer builds stories within his compositions, transforming the banal into broken, and thus intriguing, narrative. 23
Kathleen Skiverton 21. Plates Lino 43 x 33 cm £800
22. Pinch (pictured) Paper 43 x 33 cm £750
Graduated from The Art Academy with a three year Diploma in 2013. Recent exhibitions include An Ensemble of Painting, Trattori Sapori, London 2012. Skiverton’s work is about on-going process, as it is through constant and obsessive development, repetition and simplification that her works emerge. She explores these ideas further by addressing them in a range of media – pencil, print and installation – striving towards her idea of clean, polished and artificial perfection. 24
23. ian tricker Flux Fiberglass & iron powder 230 x 215 x 80 cm £7,950 Graduated from Loughborough University with a BA in Fine Art in 2013. Recent exhibitions include China Group Exhibition, Suzhou 2013; Free Range, Truman Brewery, London 2013; Trove, LCB Depot, Leicester 2012. Awards include ‘Emerging Artists Award’, Free Range, Degree Art 2013; Edward Sharpe & Commission Award, Loughborough University 2013. Tricker looks to explore surface within sculptural form, exploiting a variety of material such as the highly reflective or rust ridden to the deeply textured and smooth. Tricker manipulates sculptural tropes, such as balance, weight and tension, to distort and warp the viewer’s process of looking, aiming to also affect the surrounding architecture or situation of the sculpture. 25
24. franke vassell Growing Pains Oil 65 x 54 cm £750 Graduated from Heatherley’s School of Fine Art with a Portrait Diploma in 2013 and is currently studying there for a Sculpture Diploma. Recent exhibitions include Twelve Painters Painting, Go Figurative, London 2013; Real Hampstead, London 2010. Vassell approaches his portraits in a sculptural way, forming the lines of his faces as if moulding material. Together with this is a concern to reflect the modernity of computer generated images, explored through bright colours and almost digital-like highlights. Influenced by Lucien Freud and Tai-Shan Schierenberg, Vassell plans to further his artistic development with classical training abroad. 26
25. alice woodhouse London to Brighton (detail pictured) Aquatint 1 of 3, 3 available Etching on paper 56 x 76 cm £355, £200 unframed Graduated from Kingston University with a BA Fine Art in 2013, following a Foundation at Croydon College. Recent exhibitions include S & M, The Swan, Kingston 2013; Cherry Orchard Arts Festival, Croydon 2012; Exempt from Council Tax, Surbiton Library Hall, Surbiton 2012. Woodhouse describes herself as a ‘psychogeographer’ – being drawn to otherwise hidden and forgotten places in her work. Through her traditional methods of etching, charcoal and ink, Woodhouse looks to walk where no one has walked and crawl into spaces where no one has fit, exploring quiet streets and what’s behind closed doors. Capturing such small details and possible traces of memory, Woodhouse draws out beauty with her drawing, creating a setting for an urban fairytale. 27
This catalogue is published to accompany the exhibition FBA Futures, 20 to 25 January 2014, Mall Galleries, London, SW1. Published by The Federation of British Artists Limited. Copyright The Federation of British Artists Ltd. Designed & edited by Sophie Hill. Printed by Cantate Communications. All artwork copyright the artists. The Federation of British Artists 17 Carlton House Terrace London SW1Y 5BD Tel: 020 7930 6844 Fax: 020 7839 7830 info@mallgalleries.com www.mallgalleries.org.uk
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Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours * Royal Society of British Artists * Royal Society of Marine Artists * Royal Society of Portrait Painters * Royal Institute of
Oil Painters * New English Art Club * Pastel Society * Society of Wildlife Artists * of Portrait Painters * Royal Institute of Oil Painters * New English Art Club * Pastel Society * Society of Wildlife Artists * Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours * Royal Society of British Artists * Royal Society of Marine Artists * Royal Society of Portrait Painters * Royal Institute of Oil Painters * New English Art Club * Pastel Society * Society of Wildlife Artists * of Portrait Painters * Royal Institute of Oil Painters * New English Art Club * Pastel Society * Society of Wildlife Artists * Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours * Royal Society of British Artists * Royal Society of Marine Artists * Royal Society of Portrait Painters * Royal Institute of Oil Painters * New English Art Club * Pastel Society * Society of Wildlife Artists * of Portrait Painters * Royal Institute of Oil Painters * New English Art Club * Pastel Society * Society of Wildlife Artists * Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours * Royal Society of British Artists * Royal Society of Marine Artists * Royal Society of Portrait Painters * Royal Institute of Oil Painters * New English Art Club * Pastel Society * Society of Wildlife Artists *