Tomorrow's Utopia
Clare Andrews was born, brought up and educated in Aberdeen, graduating in drawing and painting from Gray’s School of Art. Since then she has lived mainly in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and is now based in London. This is her first solo show in her hometown.
The work entitled Tomorrow’s Utopia consists of eight paintings inspired by an old photograph from the early days of the NHS, documenting the first free physiotherapy treatments. The Peaks of Pain series was painted at a time when the artist was recovering from a period of intense physical pain – directly informed by this experience, the paintings have in common images of mountains and the visual repetition of seven red dots. The 2x3m painting Vegetarianism Was An Unknown Concept is based on a winter scene of Union Street in 1950, when “The Queen” - that great meeting place - was still at the corner of St Nicholas Street. According to Clare Andrews: “Although actually painted in Rio de Janeiro and London, these works are for me an important expression of my memories of Aberdeen”
“Above all else, what we are confronted with in the work of Clare Andrews is painting. A painting of contrasts, in which large areas of metallic and flat colour create a "mise en scene" with the realistic fleeing figures; almost cartoon-like, almost photographic. Imperturbable, when faced with these extremes, the truly important figure in this body of work is painting itself.
Energy, generated by the colour, the radiance and the monumental scale of Clare Andrews' work, induces concentration and visual fascination with luminous wonder, together with the conviction that we are face to face with something special, unique and original.”
João Henrique do Amaral,
Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Curitiba (MAC), Brazil. 2004.
Private View Thursday 05 March 2009 5.30-7.30pm
The Art Gallery, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary
As you may or may not have heard, this will be the last exhibition in our current gallery space. We hope to be relocated by the end of the year to restart our gallery programme in 2010.
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