Alexis Harding, Senior Lecturer, Fine Art, University of East London
One of the most eccentrically driven makers of his generation.
Alexis' practice over the last 15 years has aimed to split, break and reinvigorate the possibilities of abstract painting. ---UEL, 2015
Alexis' practice over the last 19 years has aimed to split, break and reinvigorate the possibilities of abstract painting.
Harding's paintings emphasise their own inescapable materiality through playful chemistry and a dramatic sense of their own collapse. The work is made by exploiting the incompatibility between two different painting media to create dynamic and emotive compositions. His method involves pouring gloss paint through a perforated trough across a wet oil surface, to create a grid, which is then left to dry. The paint over a period of months is pushed, pulled, squeezed and peeled away, to reveal dramatic scarred and puckered surfaces that when hung on the wall continue to change, and take on their own form, as they slip from the support.
His work is often seen as a negotiation between control and contingency. This is apparent in his use of the grid as a device and implicit within the painting process itself. Whereas in modernism the grid proved to be a static endpoint, in Harding‚s work it serves as an enabling dynamic element. His new paintings show his continued investigation into ways in which to manipulate paint while retaining his characteristic flamboyant and exuberant approach.This new body of work further problematises and strains the relationship between the object, matter and visuality, in addition to endangering the conventions of medium and support. Credit---http://artistsuel.com/alexis-harding
Harding's paintings emphasise their own inescapable materiality through playful chemistry and a dramatic sense of their own collapse. The work is made by exploiting the incompatibility between two different painting media to create dynamic and emotive compositions. His method involves pouring gloss paint through a perforated trough across a wet oil surface, to create a grid, which is then left to dry. The paint over a period of months is pushed, pulled, squeezed and peeled away, to reveal dramatic scarred and puckered surfaces that when hung on the wall continue to change, and take on their own form, as they slip from the support.
His work is often seen as a negotiation between control and contingency. This is apparent in his use of the grid as a device and implicit within the painting process itself. Whereas in modernism the grid proved to be a static endpoint, in Harding‚s work it serves as an enabling dynamic element. His new paintings show his continued investigation into ways in which to manipulate paint while retaining his characteristic flamboyant and exuberant approach.This new body of work further problematises and strains the relationship between the object, matter and visuality, in addition to endangering the conventions of medium and support. Credit---http://artistsuel.com/alexis-harding
ALEXIS HARDING
1973 Born in London Lives and works in London Lecture 2000-Present Goldsmiths College BA (Hons) Fine Art 2004-Present: Senior Lecturer, Fine Art, University of East London , BA, MA 2000-Present: Regular Visiting Artist: Chelsea College of Art, BA Visiting Tutor History 2014 City and Guilds 2013 Northampton Chelsea Central St Martin's (MA) Bucks New University Wimbledon (BA) 2012 Royal Academy (MA), Slide talk and tutorials Teeside (BA) 2011 Bath (BA), Slide Talk and tutorials 2010 Newcastle 2009-10 City and Guilds, London 2008-09 Cardiff College of Art, (BA Fine Art) 2008 Canterbury (UCA) Ba Hons (x9) Bath, MA (Aug) and BA (March) 2007 MFA, University of Guelph, Toronto 2007-09 Wimbledon (foundation, x5) 2006 St Martins, BA Fine Art 2004-05 Wimbledon, BA, Slide Talk and tutorials (x2) 2004 Worthing College of Art, BA 1999-2003 Kingston College of Art (x6), BA. 2002 NCAD, Dublin, BA 2001 Leeds College of Art, BA 1998 NCAD, Dublin, BA Sligo College of Art, Ireland, BA Public Lectures/Talks 2013 Show Discussion: with writer/critic Ben Street, The Nunnery Gallery, 2nd August 2011 Abstract Critical: Panel discussion with Barry Schwabsky, Katie Pratt and Mel Gooding, Goldsmiths College 2005 Talk on ‘Slump Fear/John Moores, Walker, Liverpool 2004 ‘Painting as Process, panel discussion, Earl Lu Gallery, Singapore 2003 Interview with JJ Charlesworth, Andrew Mummery Gallery 2002 Slide Talk, Royal Hiberian Academy, Dublin 1996 ‘Loaded’ panel discussion: Ikon Gallery, Birmingham |
Collections
- Arts Council of England
- Bank of Spain
- Caldic Collection, Rotterdam
- Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
- National Museums, Liverpool
- The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
- Simmons & Simmons, London
- UBS, London
- Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, London
- David Roberts Collection, London
One Person Exhibitions
2013 Rainbow Voids,Tondos and Exit Paintings, The Nunnery, London
2012
Fill Line, Platform A Gallery, Middlesborough, UK
Long Room Drying Depot, Two Rooms Gallery, New Zealand
Substance and Accident, Mummery + Schnelle, London
2011Tondos and Bi-Products, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
Clockwise Stoppages, Gallerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart
2009
Bi-product Depositories, Mummery + Schnelle, London
Fault Lines, Galleria Marabini, Milan
2007
Depthplunge, Mummery + Schnelle, London
2006
Twisting True, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
New Paintings and Sculpture, Verein allerArt, Bludenz, Austria
2004
Marella Arte Contemporanea, Milan
2003
Painting by the skin of your eyes, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London
2002
Skins, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
Galerie Katharina Krohn, Basel
2001
Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon
2000
Andrew Mummery Gallery, London
1999
Andrew Mummery Gallery, London
Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
1997
Project Room, Galerij S65, Aalst, Belgium
Selected Group Exhibitions
2014 Somewhat abstract: Nottingham Contemporary, curated by Alex Farquarson
(detail) H project Space, Bangkok, Transition Gallery, London, Usher Gallery, Lincoln
Colour: Move! Galerie Renate Bender, Munich
L.A-London, Mind the Gap, Autonomie Gallery, L.A
Student/Tutor Survey, The Miller, London
Straddle the line, APT, London
Awaiting Title: Mummery+Schnelle Gallery, London 2014
2013 Painting Two: Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2012
Painting: Pulled, Stretched, Revealed, SumarriaLunn Gallery, London
Turps Banana, Vigo Gallery, London
Royal Academy Summer Show, Royal Academy, London
1/2 Cut, The Lion and Lamb, London
Solo presentation with Gallerie Hollenbach at The Solo Project, Basel
Didier Moiselet Collection; Caen Museum, Normandy, France
Malerie: Painting as object. Transition Gallery, London, touring to Newcastle and Glasgow
2011
Royal Academy Summer show, London
What If It's All True, What Then?, Mummery + Schnelle, London
Model Vs Reality, Fold Gallery, London, selected by Alexis Harding
Absorbency Retreat, AVA Gallery, University of East London, London (curated by Alexis Harding)
Material Worlds: Contemporary Art Society Auction, Victoria House, London
2010
Solo presentation with Gallerie Hollenbach at Art Karlsruhe
LAYERS, RETROSPECTIVE, John Moores Painting Prize Show, Seongnam Art Centre Cube Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Collecting the New: Recent Acquisitions to the IMMA Collection, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Royal Academy Summer Show, Royal Academy, London
Non-identical abstraction engine, ACME Gallery, Los Angeles
Exhiibitionism: The Art of Display, Temporary Wet Painting No 11, Courtauld Institute, London.
2009
Supersurface FX, Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart
The Path of Most Resistance, OCAD Professional Gallery, Ontario, Canada
Getting Nowhere, Galleria Gentili, Prato (curated by Lorenzo Bruni)
Turps: Part One, Galleria Marabini, Milan, (curated by Marcus Harvey & Peter Jones)
Turps: Part Two, Galleria Marabini, Bologna, (curated by Marcus Harvey & Peter Jones)
2008…same as it ever was: Painting at Chelsea 1990-2007, University of the Arts, London (curated by Clyde Hopkins)
2007
Painting in the Noughties, Donegal, Ireland
Driven, Fieldgate Gallery, London
Strange Geography, Kingsgate Gallery, London
British Painting, Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart
Paint, Two Rooms Gallery, New Zealand
2006
Linda Aloysius, Alexis Harding, Warren Neidich, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London
2005
About Painting II, Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart
Time Share, Eagle Gallery, London
Tower of Babel, LAF, London
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London
Remarkable, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London
Alexis Harding and Peter Lynch, Galerie Katharina Krohn, Basel
Alexis Harding and Andrew Bick, Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart
The Red Carpet, Kunst in Schloss Untergröningen, Untergröningen, Germany
Controlled, Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, Bury St Edmunds
2004
John Moores 23: exhibition of contemporary painting, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (Winner of the First Prize)
Painting as Process: re-evaluating Painting, Earl Lu Gallery, Singapore (curated by Eugene Tan)
Works on Paper, Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart
In the Time of Shaking, IMMA, Dublin
2003
Colour Chart, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast
Before and After Science, Marella Arte Contemporanea, Milan
About Painting, Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart
Vacant, Reg Vardy Gallery, Sunderland
Drawn to be Alive, Hales Gallery, London , The Drawing Room, London
2002
Last Chance to Paradise, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London
Prima Facie, Angles Gallery, Santa Monica
The Day I Had No Cigar, Platform Gallery, London
The Image in Use, Künstlerhaus Palais Thurn und Taxis, Bregenz, Austria
Shimmering Substance, Arnolfini, Bristol, and Cornerhouse, Manchester
Andrew Mummery@Collective, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh
2001
Showcase: No. 5, Courtauld Institute, London
British Abstract Painting 2001, Flowers East, London
Sue Arrowsmith, Maria Chevska, Alexis Harding, Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart
Croma, Galerie Kröhn, Badenweiler, Germany
2000
British Art: Not Enough, VELAN, Turin. Curated by Victor de Circasia.
Pump House Gallery, London (with Mali Morris)
Painting in Europe: different perspectives, Premio Michetti 2000, Francavilla al mare (Chieti), Italy (Curated by Gianni Romano)
Movin’ On Up (Part I), Andrew Mummery Gallery, London
Colour Codes, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
1999
Super-Abstr-Action, The Box Associati, Turin and Les Filles du Calvaire art contemporain, Paris
John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 21, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Bick, de Goede, Harding, Heath, Simpson, Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart
Galerie Tanya Rumpff, Haarlem, The Netherlands
Fantastc Overload, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
Hoxton New Music Days exhibition, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London (with Maria Chevska and composers Deirdre Gribbin & Peter Wiegold
1998
Still, (curated by Jenefer Winters), Laurent Delaye Gallery, London
first eleven, The NatWest Art Prize (short-listed artist), Lothbury Gallery, London
1997
John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 20, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Stepping Up, Andrew Mummery 33 Great Sutton Street, London
Finish, Spacex Gallery Exeter
1996
Loaded, curated by Terry Shave, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Small Truths, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton. Touring to Todd Gallery, London; Leeds City Art Galleries and Northern Gallery for Contemporary Arts, Sunderland
Die Yuppie Scum, curated by Martin Maloney, Karsten Schubert Gallery, London
Wet Paint, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
Painting, (with Yinka Shonibare) Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
New Contemporaries '96, Tate Gallery Liverpool and Camden Arts Centre, London
Nine Lives, Alternative Arts Space 26 Chiltern Street, London
ART96 London Contemporary Art Fair, exhibition curated by Andrew Mummery
1995
Multiple Orgasm, Lost in Space Gallery, London
Group Show, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
Publications
- Tony Godfrey, Painting Today, Thames and Hudson
- Townsend, Chris , 'On Depthplunge, a new series of work by Alexis Harding'
- Holman, Martin, 'Twisted into True' (Dublin: Rubicon Gallery, 2006).
- Tan, Eugene, Painting as Process: Re-evaluating Painting (Singapore: Earl Lu Gallery, 2004).
- Treuherz, Julian, ed., John Moores 23 (Liverpool: Walker Art Gallery, 2004).
- Charlesworth, J. J, ' Painting by the skin of your eyes' (London: Andrew Mummery Gallery, 2003).
- Marella, Primo , ed., Before and After Science (Milano: Marella Arte Contemporanea, 2003). [Exhibition Catalogue]
- Roberts, Catsou, Shimmering Substance/View Finder (Bristol: Arnolfini, 2002).
- Collings, Matthew, British Abstract Painting 2001 (London: Momentum, 2001).
- Busto, Andrea, Super-Abstr-Action (Torino: The Box, 2000).
- Ghisbourne, Mark, '...Not fade away,' (London: Andrew Mummery Gallery, 1998).
- Harding, Alexis, 'Rhythm For Reasons' in John Moores 20 (Liverpool: Walker Art Gallery, 1998), p.68-69.
- MacRitchie, Lynn, First Eleven: The Natwest Art Prize 1998 (London: NatWest Group, 1998).
- Sheridan, Jill, Nicholas de Ville and Stephen Foster, ed., Small Truths: Repetition and the Obsessional in Contemporary Art (Southampton: John Hansard Gallery, 1997).
- Craddock, Sacha and Richard Shone, ed., New Contemporaries '96, (Liverpool: Tate Gallery, 1996).
Magazines and Newspaper articles
- 2015 No Barking Art, issue 4, Eastern Promise, Feature, publish in September 2015
- 2014 Paul Karey Kent…blog
- 2014 Munich show review…newspaper….
- 2012 Ben Luke, Art Review, September 2012…substance and accident Stuart Elliot, Mummery & Schnelle Gallery, London.
- 2013 Time out Review….Nunnery show
- 2011 Artforum…gemma Tipton
- 2011 Irish Times,,,review….
- Turps Banana Interview with Alexis Harding: Blue copy
- Bonaventura, Paul, "Raw and Beautiful - Alexis Harding in conversation with Paul Bonaventura". Contemporary , Issue 88, No. 99, (2006)
- Charlsworth, J.J., 'Fever: New Paintings in London', Flash Art, Vol. XXXVII, No 239 (November/December 2004), p. 84-87
- Godfrey, Tony, 'Liverpool Biennial', Burlington Magazine (November 2004), p. 776-777
- Tunney, Jon, 'A Gloss Finish', Liverpool Echo (17 September 2004)
- Brown, Chris , 'Months Watching Paint Dry Lands Artist £25,000', Daily Post (12 September 2004)
- Schwabsky, Barry, ' Alexis Harding' , Art Forum International (January 2004) p. 166
- Anonymous, 'Art", The Evening Standard (4 October 2000)
Extra Reference links:
http://alexisharding.com/index.php?page=paintings-2010-12
http://artistsuel.com/alexis-harding/4586776218