New works by three outstanding early-career painters brought about by the biennial Jerwood Painting Fellowships. The collection of works seen in this group exhibition for the first time vary in scale from small canvasses to large-scale works and are the product of three diverse and individual voices.
Anthony Faroux’s installations are inspired by the imagination of selective memory and how objects can appear to be the residue of past experiences. To achieve this he creates composites of film, sound and painting that piece together the fragments of an image. The small works are exhibited on large panels, collage style, together with a speaker that emits everyday noises and sounds edited to become a musical composition. The small works shown collectively allows the image to be seen in its entirety without any element disappearing into the viewer’s peripheral vision.
Susan Sluglett exhibits five large canvases themed on a royal wedding. One of the paintings illustrates the aftermath of a raucous night out where a large, swollen foot sticks out of the top of a Georgian column, wrapped in black and yellow hazard tape. Her seemingly frenetic execution is underpinned by slick, tightly controlled compositions, reflecting in paint the same conflicting emotions of the subject matter.
Sophia Starling’s work explores the infinite possibilities for abstract painting in three dimensions. Through an endless process of stretching and re-stretching, she wraps long lengths of material around large wooden strains pleating sections of canvas into circles before adding paint. Once dry she begins to partially undo the canvas, revealing a richly coloured contour interrupted by darts of bare canvas that slice through the shape.
The three artists were selected from over 300 applications through an open call to UK-based painters within five years of establishing their practice. Chosen to undertake a year-long mentorship, each was paired with an eminent UK painter, Marcus Harvey, Mali Morris RA and Fabian Peake, and received support and advice from the Jerwood Visual Arts team. In this second edition of the Fellowships, each artist received a £10,000 bursary to support the making of new work for this exhibition.
The Jerwood Painting Fellowships were established in 2010 to provide critical support for exceptional painters embarking on their professional careers. Alumni include Anthony Faroux, Clare Mitten, Cara Nahaul, Susan Sluglett, Sophia Starling and Corinna Till mentored by Paul Bonaventura, Stephen Farthing RA, Marcus Harvey, Chantal Joffe, Mali Morris RA and Fabian Peake.
