Iain Andrews

We love Andrews’ joyous handling of paint. His paintings make the world look as though it is made of wax and then the sun has come out... We can see why Saatchi selected him for one his 12 emerging artists for his ‘School of Saatchi’ series.

Iain Andrews' paintings begin as a dialogue... More»

We love Andrews’ joyous handling of paint. His paintings make the world look as though it is made of wax and then the sun has come out... We can see why Saatchi selected him for one his 12 emerging artists for his ‘School of Saatchi’ series.

Iain Andrews' paintings begin as a dialogue with an image from art history – a painting by an Old Master that may then be rearranged or used as a starting point from which to playfully but reverently deviate. His recent work is concerned with the struggle to capture the relationship between the spiritual and the sensual, apparent opposites that are expressed in his work through the conflict of high narrative themes and sensuous painterly marks. The sheer enjoyment of making these marks is not intended to be a Dionysian pursuit that drowns out the appearance of the real through a curtain of subjective, expressionistic gestures, but rather an attempt to transform and redeem the form through the act of making. The act of making becomes inseparable from the message that is being conveyed through the marks, an important aspect of transformation and redemption.
“It is vital that pictures are not sedatives, but are capable of evoking sensation and awakening feelings. I hope to frustrate the process of recognition through treading a path that plays between the borders of figuration and abstraction, and thus slow down the viewer by creating a space for sensation to emerge. I want my works to be sensuously addictive, worldly and material, yet also to have a sense of contemplative silence akin to a religious icon.”

Solo Exhibitions
2009, The Pilgrimage of Lost Children and Other Stories Bankley Mill, Manchester and prizes and awards.
2009, School of Saatchi, BBC2
2009, Gallery 286, London
2009, Queen Street Studios, Belfast
2008, The Edge of Figuration, Tregoning Fine Art, Derby
2007, New Paintings, Tregoning Fine Art, Derby
2007, Pockets of Silence, Attic Art Gallery, Bury
2005, Golgotha, Albion Green Gallery, Didsbury, Manchester
2000, Transfiguration/Deposition, St. Paul’s the Crossing, Walsall, West Mids.

Group Exhibitions
2008, Marmite Art Prize, Studio 1.1, London
2008, Top 100, Various venues, London
2008, New Blood Art Fair, London
2008, Budapest Art Fair, Hungary
2008, Horse Power, Liverpool Biennale, Edge Hill Station, Liverpool
2008, International Artists, Opera Gallery, Hungary
2008, Add Balance to the Equation, Lloyd Gill Gallery, Somerset
2008, Night Thoughts, Royal West of England Academy, Bath
2008, Imaging the Bible, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth
2007, From Bacchus to Barbie, Signal Gallery, London
2007, SOA Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2005, Stations of the Cross, St.Mary’s, Stoke Newington, London.
2005, Art Of Imagination, touring European Exhibition – Galerie Venere, Italy - Lofthouse Galerie, Germany - Silos Gallery, Spain
2004, Challenge the Nail, Salon des Arts, London
2004, Candid Arts Trust , London
2003, Art and Vision, touring Exhibition – Williamsburg Art centre, New York – Gallery 37, London – Kircudbright, Scotland
2003, Religion, Art and War, Salon des Arts, London
2002, Art of Imagination, Gallery 37, London and Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland

Competitions, Prizes and Awards
2009 Shortlisted for Abbey Award in Fine Art, British School of Rome
2009, Florence Biennale, Florence
2008, Marmite Art Prize , Shortlist, London
2007, Sir Leslie Joesph Young Artist Award, Finalist - Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
2007, Celeste Art Prize, Shortlist, London
2006, What the world needs now, BBC 1
2002, LUKAS Drawing Prize, London