Standing Ground: a new exhibition featuring work by 5 UAL alumni exploring what it means to paint the British landscape
- Written byEleanor Harvey
- Published date 21 August 2024
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What does it mean to paint the landscape of Britain today?
A new exhibition, Standing Ground, expands on the tradition of painting the British landscape.
On from 6 - 22 September at Thames-Side Studios Gallery, the exhibition features work by 5 University of the Arts London alumni, including Sir Frank Bowling OBE and Kimathi Donkor.
The exhibition is curated by artists Raksha Patel and Trevor Burgess, and features work by both. Raksha is a Senior Lecturer on the BA Fine Art Painting course at Camberwell, as well as a graduate herself, having completed her Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Design at Central Saint Martins. Trevor is also a former member of staff from UAL.
- Sir Frank Bowling OBE – graduated from Chelsea College of Arts, as well as being an Honorary UAL Fellow and former tutor at Camberwell College of Arts.
- Jasmir Creed – Wimbledon College of Arts (MA Fine Art, 2015; BA Fine Art: Painting, 2013)
- Kimathi Donkor – Camberwell College of Arts (MA Fine Art, 2010); Course Leader for BA Fine Art: Painting, Camberwell; Reader in Contemporary Painting and Black Art
- Azraa Motala – Chelsea College of Arts (MA Fine Art, 2018)
About the exhibition:
The exhibition expands on the tradition of painting the British landscape in terms of subject matter, use of paint and medium. The painters span several decades bringing an intergenerational dialogue to landscape painting today.
Landscape painting is deeply connected to ideas of national identity; particularly in Britain where it’s often regarded as the most significant historical national artistic achievement.
The landscapes of Constable and Turner are sometimes seen as synonymous with British art altogether. Frank Bowling shares their preoccupation with light, which is never more evident than in his expansive ‘Great Thames’ paintings of the late 1980s, one of which is on display in this exhibition.
Kimathi Donkor’s art re-imagines mythic, historical and everyday encounters across Africa and its global Diasporas, whilst Jasmir Creed is a painter who explores urban alienation and contemporary cross-cultural. Her paintings show the city as a rich forest-like environment of the known and the unknown.
Azraa Motala’s practice and research explores the lived experiences of British South Asian women, including notions of identity, belonging, culture and heritage within the context of the contemporary Western space.
