Artists to Watch – Luke George & Elizabeth Rose

Is it me or have I been noticing more and more artistsic partnerships lately? The likes of Gilbert & George and Jean Claude &  Christo have been around for a while, but more recently it seems that artists working together has become more accepted, with well known pairings like Allora & Calzadilla, Elmgreen & Dragset, Noble & Webster, The Chapman Brothers and Doyle & Mallinson. On top of these more recently emerging or paired up are Nerhol, kennardphillips, Keeler & Tornero, Swales & Sinclair and so on. There is even the notable pretend pairing – Bob & Roberta Smith – that is actually a single artist Patrick Brill.

Griffin Art Prize

Then there are Luke George & Elizabeth Rose who met at City & Guilds London, and who have recently come to prominence as winners of the Griffin Art Prize (see recent feature) – a newly established prize for recent graduates that is rapidly becoming one of the most important of the London art world.

As deserved winners they are keen to investigate the possibilities of materials – in their case primarily paint and canvas. They manage to draw a remarkable range of texture and depth from such traditional and well-used materials and their medium to large sized canvases are a joy to examine at any scale.

Channelling the unpredicatable ‘avenir’ of Derrida (“There is a future which is predictable, programmed, scheduled, foreseeable. But there is a future, l’avenir (to come) which refers to someone who comes whose arrival is totally unexpected.”) they look to shared intuition and “happy accident” to takes the artwork in a entirely new direction.

They are “excited by the notion of our paintings eventually making themselves; by responding directly to the surfaces and working in such a way that our actions are dictated entirely by the process rather than our own aesthetic needs as individuals.”

Their work is excellent, inventive and attractive – and if it takes two to tango – then why not?

The Griffin Art Prize tours to High House Gallery in the Cotswolds from 18 January to 16 February 2014

Related articles

• The Griffin Art Prize 2013 winners – Luke George & Elizabeth Rose (akickupthearts.wordpress.com)
• The Griffin Art Prize 2013 Exhibition (akickupthearts.wordpress.com)
• Artist Bob and Roberta Smith and filmmaker Tim Newton on their inspiring relationship (theguardian.com)
• Exciting Contemporary Art Arrives in the Cotswolds (akickupthearts.wordpress.com)
• Elizabeth Price wins £60,000 Contemporary Art Society Annual Award (akickupthearts.wordpress.com)

Griffin Art Prize 2013 Touring Venues Announced

The excellent Griffin Art Prize, sponsored by Colarts, has announced that for the first time it will be touring the south of England. The prize exhibition, which opens on 6 November with an evening Private View and the announcement of this years winner, runs through November at the West London Griffin Gallery.

Rae Hicks

First stop for the touring exhibition is High House Gallery in the heart of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds – a wonderful oasis of top quality art in a region where contemporary galleries are more likely to feature watercolours of cows than ones suspended in formalehyde! Provisional dates for the exhibition are 16 January to 16 February 2014. Register your email on their home page to receive updates on the event and an invitation to the opening Private View.

Susannah Douglas

Next up is the fine White Moose Gallery in Barnstable, Devon. Recently opened in a renovated historic hall the gallery combines exhibitions by local artists with a selection of high quality contemporary artists. The exhibition will run from mid February for about four weeks.

 

 

High House Gallery, Main Street, Clanfield, Oxon OX18 2SH Tel 01367 810126

White Moose Gallery, Moose Hall, Trinity Street, Barnstaple, Devon EX32 8HX Tel 01271 379872

Griffin Gallery, The Griffin Gallery, The Studio Building, 21 Evesham Street, London W11 4AJ Tel 0208 424 3239

Related articles

• Shortlist Announced for The Griffin Art Prize 2013 (akickupthearts.wordpress.com)

Shortlist Announced for The Griffin Art Prize 2013

The shortlist for the excellent, recently-established Griffin Art Prize (GAP) has just been announced and it is truly excellent. I am very impatiently looking forward to the PV to see who the winner may be from the the fine artists selected. Rae Hicks, Susannah Douglas and Mary Wintour have particularly caught my eye – but all would be worthy winners.

For those unfamiliar with this competition it is an open submission competition, supported by artists materials supplier Colarts, for those artists who have graduated in the last 5 years and whose primary medium is painting or drawing.

Susannah Douglas

It also has probably one of the most desirable prizes of all graduate shows:  a years use of a very large studio space with the additional benefit of a virtually unlimited supply of materials from top fine art brands: Winsor & Newton, Liquitex and Conté à Paris. The studio itself is located in West London next to Colarts‘ state of the art Innovation & Development department, where chemists work on the development of fine art products.

There’s more too – the lucky winning artist will have the time and space to produce work for a one person exhibition in the Griffin Gallery to be shown in 2014.

Mary Wintour

In short well-worth winning! This of course means a very high quality batch of applicants from which a  ‘longlist’ of twenty was selected. The following very talented ten artists have now been selected for the shortlist (click on each name to link to a selection of their work): Eleanor Bedlow, Susannah Douglas, Helen Frank, George and Rose, Rae Hicks, Emily Moore, Scott Robertson, Yuhwa Son, Mary Wintour and Nicole Wong.

Emily Moore

The winner will be announced at a private view of the Griffin Art Prize 2013 Shortlist Exhibition on November 6 – please contact the Grifin Gallery if you are interested in obtaining an invitation (no charge). The exhibition will run from the 7 November for about a month.

The Griffin Art Prize 2013, The Griffin Gallery, The Studio Building, 21 Evesham Street, London W11 4AJ

Tel +44 208 424 3239

email info@griffingallery.co.uk

George & Rose

Helen Frank