[Illustrated: Untitled (Composite Drawing), Pencil on paper, 2008from Poignancy Passing Muster, at The Wharf Road Project, London]
Carriers
2009, Pencil on paper, wooden speaker-stands, speakers and sound, Dimensions variable
Stephen Warrington presents an audio-visual piece combining a set of sounds playing through a pair of speakers, with drawings displayed on constructed speaker-stands. These two modes of production are explored in relation to constructing a combined narrative. Through layering recordings of hand-made sounds, the notion of the artist's hand as an expressive tool is given an importance which is at once undermined by the austere arrangement of the sound and the rigidity of the drawing. Although the intimacy of viewing the drawn elements is at odds with the public projection of the sound, these two methods are held together - one mode literally supporting the other.
Exhibitions
2008Poignancy Passing Muster, at The Wharf Road Project, London
2007Flock, GX Gallery, London
2006Pessimism is Solar / A Flat Unaccented Signal OR Electrifying the Night, Parade Space, London
2006Stepsiblings, Temporary Contemporary, London
20053:16, Candid Arts, London
2005Memorise, Candid Arts, London
2004InsideOut, Corridor Gallery, London
2003Usual ¦ Ominous ¦ Sentiment, Hotel Bellville, London
2003One Night Stand, Notting Hill Arts Club, London
Education
Foundation, ChelseaCollege of Art & Design (2000-01)
BA (Hons) Fine Art: Painting, WimbledonSchool of Art (2001-04)
2009, Bronze, paint and plywood, 190 x 95 x 65 cms
Currently my work is concerned with still life as sculpture and the mimicry of domestic ornaments. The use of foodstuff, plant matter and gloss paint is intended to engender everyday objects and materials, imbuing them with a subtle sexual charge. I like to try and refer to feelings of desire, lust, hunger and repulsion. The aim is to create seductive compositions with dark and sinister undertones.
Education
Oct 07 - ongoing
PG Dip Fine Art
RoyalAcademy of Arts
Sept 01 - June 04
BA (Hons) Fine Art
Kent Institute of Art and Design
Sept 98 - June 00
B-TecND Art and Design
HuddersfieldTech.College
Exhibitions
New Contemporaries - 2009 (Forth-coming)
LECG - March 2009
Premiums Interim Show, RoyalAcademy of Arts - Feb 2009
RoyalAcademy Summer Show - June 2008
Employment
Oct 06 - present
AB Fine Art Foundry, London
Lost wax bronze sculpture fabrication and mould making
The Hallucinatory themes of my recent series have developed from questions of painterly surface. The surfaces are heavily marbled and fluid and the paintings are largely improvised. The marbled surface seems to me to be a reoccurring motif that appears in various guises at particular points in history. Its morphic language belongs to the phantasmagoria of the Romantic period, and also the LSD culture of free love of the late 1960’s and the UFO club. I see the marbled surface as a signifier; in its convulsive movement I explore the anxieties of the individual spirit, rebelliousness and the subconscious.
I also look at the cult of the young dead poet. Youth, beauty and genius cut off before full bloom is a tragic ideal. I find images of decadentism and decay alluring, and in my paintings, the central protagonist is often given over to this luxurious despair. Out of this decadentism comes my interest in Laudanum; particularly the Romantic poets and Wilkie Collins dependency on the opiate and their experiences of being wracked with hallucinations. I think it is poetic that Laudanum it is primarily a painkiller and this decadentism is derived from an alleviation of suffering. In its cure is a kind of beauty.
I also draw influences from Victorian Fairy Painting. There is a grotesque quality to the over-abundant and over-populated works of Joseph Noel Paton, and in the paintings of John Anster Fitzgerald. This style of painting developed out of thinly constructed rationalism that might at any point collapse. My paintings belong to that moment of collapse. They are overwrought projections of psychological disturbance and the psychedelia.
After huge consumptions of Laudanum, Wikie Collins became haunted by an apparition of his double, “Ghost Wilkie”. I’m interested in “Ghost Wilkie” because I think that my paintings are like this apparition. My paintings have an awkward and nostalgic view of the Romantic period. They re-enact, but in doing so, become something else. I don’t see my practice as parodic; instead I feel it has more in common with “Ghost Wilkie”.The work becomes a Doppelganger. In this instance, the Doppelganger emerges from images of fervent passions, but is transformed into a double, aping and re-enacting that passion until the memory is consumed. My work, through the act of doubling, mocks the torturous moment whilst seeking to inhabit it.
Education
Royal Academy Schools- PGDip Fine Art (RAS)
FalmouthCollege of Art- BA Hons. Fine Art Painting
Exhibitions
2008-The Colour Show, Frieze Education Space, Frieze Art Fair, London
2008-Laudanum, Solo Show, Gone Tomorrow Gallery, London
2007-Durty Turkey, Group Show, Gone Tomorrow Gallery, London
2007-Salon, New British Painting and Works on Paper, London
2006-Bunny Incinerator, Group Show, Gone Tomorrow Gallery, London
2006-Night Thoughts, Solo Show, Gone Tomorrow Gallery, London
2006-George Polke Presents, Group Show, London
2005-Acid Drops and Sugar Candy, Group Show, Transition, London
2005-Launch, Group Show, Gone Tomorrow Gallery, London
2005-Radical, Group Show, Jerwood Space, London
2004-Group Show, The Pump House Gallery, Hornsey
2004-The Assembly, Group Show, The Assembly, London
2004-The Schools Degree Show, The RoyalAcademySchools
2003-Work Ethic, Group Show, Gone Tomorrow Gallery, London
2003-Premiums, The RoyalAcademy, London
2001-Little Comfort, Solo Show, The Cluny, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Bibliography
2008-Garageland, Supernatural Issue
2005-Academic Brilliance, Colin Gleadell, The Telegraph Magazine, Feb
2004-Underground Movement, Ossian Ward, The RA Magazine, Summer Issue
2008, Aluminium scaffolding tubes, scaffolding clamps, fluorescent lights, paint, 290 x 140 x 70 cms
Forthcoming:
Group Show, Duve Gallery, Berlin, March 09
Solo Show, Delfina Foundation, London
Delfina Residency, Beirut
Solo Show, Bischoff Weiss, London
Solo Exhibitions:
2008:
Government Art Collection commission for 50 Queens Anne’s Gate, London
Divisions, The Centro Colombo Americano, Bogotá
Pathfinding. Solo Show, Galerie Almine Rech, Paris Preverberation. Solo Show, Siobhan Davies Dance Studio, London
2007:
Luminous Territories at Bischoff/Weiss, London RP3 at The EconomistPlaza, London First Floor, Galerie Almine Rech, Paris
2006:
LP4, Public Sculpture, Victoria, London
2005:
Shift. Solo Show, Bischoff/Weiss, London
Stanhope Solo Exhibition, Serpentine Pavilion, London
Captive Light, Solo Installation at Hull Time Based Arts
2004:
Solo show, Garden Fresh Gallery, Chicago
Group Shows:
2008:
Rackowe and White, Art Vandelay, London
Constructs for Illumination, Group show at Allsopp Contemporary (curated by Brooke Lynn McGowan), London
After Dark, Louise Blouin Foundation, London
Domestic Appliance, Flowers East Gallery, London.
Walls & Gateways. Group show, Gent, Belgium.
‘LUMIÈRE’ Group Show at Galerie Jan Wentrup, Berlin Monologue / Dialogue, Part II. Bischoff/Weiss, London
2007:
All Tomorrows Pictures, ICA, London Jerwood Sculpture Prize: Short Listed Artist Exhibition, Jerwood Space,London
Time, BurghleySculptureGarden, Burghley House, Stamford
The Armory Show, exhibiting with Galerie Almine Rech, NYC
2006:
Artificial Light. Group Show. Anderson Gallery, Richmond, Virginia and Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, USA. September 06 and December 06.
Frieze Art Fair, London, showing with Almine Rech. October 06.
Monologue/Dialogue UK-Thai art today, British Council Residency
followed by Group Show at BU Gallery, Bangkok. August 2006.
Art Basel, exhibiting with Galerie Almine Rech, June 06
Education: 1999 – 2001 University College London, The Slade School Of Fine Art, Master of Fine Art (Sculpture)
1995 – 1998 Sheffield Hallam University, B.A. Honours Fine Art (Sculpture)
1994 – 1995 Cambridge Regional College, B.T.E.C Diploma, Foundation Studies
2009, Mixed media - painting, clay heads on plinths & popped balloon bunting, Dimensions variable
My work is at times vibrant, colourful and sprawling. Qualities which I do very much enjoy. However in the current climate of social, political and financial uncertainty my work is exploiting the more dark and sinister elements, which have always existed in my practice. Hence a toned down colour palette of current works, my burnt out fashion advertising collages and paintings reading subjective yet ambiguous phrases such as THE NICE DECADE & WESTERN CIVILIZATION.
Instead of bombarding the viewer with an array of surfaces, colours and imagery I have chosen to present a much more melancholic work. A minimal piece (in relation to some of my previous works) which responds to a situation of unrest and doom. A painting reading THE LAST PICTURE - a black monochrome paying reference to the great failure of Modernism's journey into the end of painting Ad Reinhart/Malevich. A caption which was appropriated from a newspaper image of the last photograph taken of a teenager before he was murdered. The heads whilst paying homage to the classical bust, reference the dark oppressive regimes of places such as GuantanamoBay and the Middle East. Black popped balloon bunting strewn over the architectural features of the gallery space signalling the party is over.
Of course THE NEW AGENDA is not directly and illustration of these issues (I always prefer my work to be more ambiguous and universal) it is a reflection of them and other situations.
Michael Pybus lives and works in London.
Education
2006- 08 MA in SculptureRoyalCollege of Art, London, UK
2001 - 04 Fine Art BA (Hons) Goldsmiths College, London, UK
Solo Exhibitions
2006neon flips malibu crash Dazed & Confused Gallery, London, UK
Clincher Cafe Space, Jerwood Space, London, UK
Group Exhibitions
2008Robert Dowling - Tim Ellis - Nick Goss - Michael Pybus - Jia Jia Wang, London UK
An Experiment in Collaboration, Jerwood Space, London, UK
2007NewBuild Terrace gallery, London, UK
2006The Birthday Show, The Foundry, London, UK
Future First, The Residence, London, UK
Summer Sale, Fosterart, London, UK
Way out East, Tram Depot Gallery, London, UK
Works on Paper Flux Factory, Long Island, New York, USA
Hallelujah! The Tab Centre, London, UK
2005Blue Tac and Chimney Sweeps The Seabright Arms, London, UK
A Collection The Tab Centre, London, UK
The Hackney Artists, The Foundry, London, UK
The Housewarming, The Residence, London, UK
Summer Show, Fosterart, Shoreditch, London, UK
Summer Salon: with a twist, Hackney Museum, London, UK
Island Art Film and Video Festival, Prenelle Gallery, London, UK
2004Conurbation, Unit 2.4 Kingly Court, London, UK
2003Miasma Hexagon Space, London, UK
2002ArtBelow Zero, Nottingham Arts Club, London, UK
2001Yr: 1, Photographers Gallery,London, UK
2000Our Town, Millenium Dome, London, UK
Special Projects
2008Exclusive Portfolio for Spectaclepublication by CS Leigh and produced by Syntax,
2007Ongoing Contributing Arts Editor for, PLASTIQUE Magazine - OUT NOW!! featuring Agathe Snow, Sterling Ruby, Dan Attoe, Josephine Meckseper, Josh Smith
2007Creative Director, Bread and Butter Fair, Installation for Dazed & Confused Magazine, Barcelona, Spain
Bitmap2009
Mixed media, Dimensions variable - Installation evolving throughout exhibition
Bitmap is an evolving mixed media installation; a ‘cut & paste’ world with its own logic, which visually ricochets between 3d objects and their 2d counterparts on the wall and floor.
EDUCATION
09/04 – 06/06 MA Painting, RoyalCollege of Art (Distinction/Thesis)
09/98 – 06/01 BA Hons Fine Art/Painting, University of Gloucestershire
09/95 – 06/96 Foundation Studies in Art & Design, University of Gloucestershire
09/90 – 06/94 BA Hons History of Art with French and European Studies, University of Sussex
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Oct 2007Kaleidoscope, Blyth Gallery, ImperialCollege, London
Oct 2007 Eye Chamber, 10 x 10 Projects, HOUSE Gallery, London
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Mar 2008What Goes Up Must Come Down, Madame Lillies, London
Feb 2008Transformer, Bengal Gallery of Fine Art, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Feb 2008Mother Language Day, Asiatic Gallery of Fine Art, Bangladesh
Oct 2006 Arcade, Portman Estate, London
Jun 2006 World Cup, 39, London
May 2006Generation, Royal College of Art, London
Jan 2006 The Drawing Room, RWA, Bristol
Nov 2005 RWA Autumn Exhibition, Bristol
Jun 2005Short & Sharp, Howie Street, Royal College of Art, London
May 2005 head room, Blyth Gallery, ImperialCollege, London
Sept 2004 Staff and Student Show, WimbledonCollege of Art, London
May 2003 Group Show, Isbourne Centre, Cheltenham
Oct 2002 Construction and Deconstruction, Atrium Space, Nelson Thorne Publishing, Cheltenham
May 2001 Space Peel, GloucesterPrisonMuseum, Funded by South West Arts, Gloucester City Council and Writers in Prison Network
Oct 2000 Works on Paper, RK Burt Gallery, London
Mar 2000 Life After Death, Gloucester Docks
AWARDS
Jan – Mar 08British Council Artist Residency, Dhaka, Bangladesh
June 2005 Royal West of EnglandAcademy Student Bursary
May 2005 Helen Chadwick Memorial Prize, RCA
May 2002 South West Arts Bursary
June 2001 Simon Keswick Travel Award
June 2000 Summerfield Scholarship to The British School at Rome
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