Iain Andrews

Iain Andrews’ paintings relate to a tradition of painting in the sense of continuation but also, importantly, expansion and extension. His work could be compared with Cecily Brown’s gesturally abstracted figuration, but where Brown’s focus is bodily and profane, Andrews shows the heaviness and pleasure of the flesh through the light of the ‘spirit’ – a practice in its intention and its process far more reminiscent of Rembrandt, although evoking a very contemporary idea of progress and constant flux.

Iain Andrews paintings possess a complexity which comes out of the process, the breaking down and building up of form; they work through their origins in figuration, expressive and satisfyingly painterly but not at the expense of content; these suggestive figures hover on the verge of abstraction, in a perpetual moment of transfiguration. They interrogate the body and bodily – our medium for negotiating the world – and there is that feeling of transcience, of passing through, questioning what it is to be human, and what we may be striving towards or what is sacred to us. The gestures of the paint themselves discuss the physical. There is a figure or groups of figures in a continual slight movement, constantly becoming and never still, in defiance of their fleshiness. But they are painted with compassion, and in their relationships to each other are connections and responsibilities.

The selectors and judges for the Marmite Prize were drawn to Iain Andrews’ painting, ‘The Eat Me’, because of its evocation of humanity and emotion, its depth, and its well-articulated painterliness. Andrews succeeds in his stated attempt to “frustrate the process of recognition through treading a path that plays between the borders of figuration and abstraction, and thus slows down the viewer by creating a space for sensation to emerge.”

Stephanie Moran – Curator of Marmite Painting Prize

Education

2000 Sheffield University, PG Dip. Art Psychotherapy
1998 University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, MA Painting
1996 University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, BA(Hons) Fine Art

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2011: ‘The Manchster Contemporary’, Man&Eve, Manchester — ‘The Return – House of the Nobleman’, Boswall House, Regents Park, London — ‘Jerwood Drawing Prize’, Jerwood Space, London — ‘Polemically Small’, curated by Edward Lucie Smith, Garboushian Gallery, LA’ — ‘Deptford X’, Core Gallery, London — Contemporary Approaches to Watercolour’, Mall Galleries, London — ‘We are all in this together’, Bureau Gallery, Manchester
2010: ‘The Borrowed Loop’, Man&Eve, London — ‘The Marmite Art Prize’, Tameside, touring to Coventry and London in 2011 — ‘Crash Salon’, Charlie Dutton Gallery
2009: ‘Salon 09’, Matt Roberts Arts, London — ‘Top 100’, Jealous Gallery, London — ‘British Art in the Twenty First Century’, Opera Gallery, Hungary — ‘The Pilgrimage of Lost Children and Other Stories’, Bankley Mill, Manchester — ‘Theoria’, Gallery 286, London — ‘Iain Andrews’, Queen Street Studios, Belfast (with Genieve Figgis)
2008: ‘Marmite Art Prize’, Studio 1.1, London — ‘Top 100’, MCPS/PRS Alliance building and Various venues, London — ‘Horse Power’, Liverpool Biennale, Edge Hill Station, Liverpool — ‘International Artists’, Opera Gallery, Hungary — ‘Add Balance to the Equation’, Lloyd Gill Gallery, Somerset — ‘Night Thoughts’, Royal West of England Academy, Bath — ‘Imaging the Bible’, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth
2007: ‘From Bacchus to Barbie’, Signal Gallery, London — 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
2003: ‘Art and Vision’, touring Exhibition – Williamsburg Art centre, New York – Gallery 37, London – Kircudbright, Scotland — ‘Religion, Art and War’, Salon des Arts, London

Competitions, Prizes and Awards

2011: Marmite painting Prize, 1st Prize winner, London
2011: Jerwood Drawing Prize, Finalist
2011: National Art Open, North West Region prize winner
2010: Jerwood Painting Fellowship, Shortlist
2009: Salon 09, Shortlist, Matt Roberts Arts, London
2009: Best of British, Finalist, Saatchi Gallery, London
2009: Abbey Scholarship Fine Art, Shortlist, 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
2002: LUKAS Drawing Prize, London

Selected press / Publications

2011: Polemically Small – Art by International Artists at two California venues
2011: a-n magazine, front cover, May issue
2011: Editors pick – 10 Top International Shows – Saatchi Online Magazine
2011: One to Watch, Financial Times
2011: Marmite Painting Prize, Exhibition Catalogue
2010: Review of ‘The Borrowed Loop’ at Man&Eve , a-n October
2009: School of Saatchi, BBC 2 — The Vacuum, Issue 41.
2008: Marmite Art Prize, Exhibition Catalogue with essay by Oliver Kossack
2007: Celeste Art Prize, Exhibition Catalogue
2006: What the world needs now, BBC 1
2004: Challenge the Nail, Exhibition Catalogue
2003: Religion, Art and War, Exhibition Catalogue, Imperial College London
2001: The Britart Directory – Henry Mayhew Publishing, Sheffield

Talks and Papers

2011: Who cares if it’s Art or not, is it any good? – Liverpool Cathedral
2010: ‘The Good, The True and The Beautiful’ – University of Wales, Aberystwyth