Artist Statement
"Through my paintings I question what relationship the viewer has to the surface and pictorial space of painting; what can that encounter elicit? What are the implications for an immersive pictorial space in painting when considered outside the historical figure/ground or subject/object relationship? I am interested in producing a cinematic glow that references a digital era of the saturated screen. Generating a luminous sheen that acts as a hinge to a constructed virtual reality of the pictorial space. This is an age when the pictorial image is no longer related to a reality but rather the reality the maker wants to construct. I establish an illusion of the real that isn't fixed, that is figural, an evolving strange world of make believe. I incorporate not only a semblance of an illusionistic space, but also the resemblance of the viewer who is reflected in the surface.
My paintings emerge from an anonymous narrative in the studio; the pigment and binder are layered at a diaphanous thickness in a labour intensive process that denies the authorial brush of the artist and is in contrast to the immediacy expected of image making in this digital era. The surfaces resonate with the potential cinematic glow whilst the illusionistic chromatic tension of the surface oscillates. This physical intensity is heightened through the shared social activity of the viewer as we pursue the allusive image down the corridors of the surface. The viewer has the potential to encounter these objects and discover their own painterly moment rather than the indexical mimicking of the movements of the maker or observing a known reality."
Solo Exhibitions
|
2021 |
Solo Exhibition |
General Practice, Lincoln |
|
2021 |
Night Into Day |
Ikon Off-Site, HMP Grendon + Wolverhampton School of Art |
|
2018 |
Electric Cherry Blossom |
Sarah Wiseman Gallery, Oxford |
|
2015 |
Phd Solo Exhibition |
School of Art and Design, The University of Wolverhampton |
|
2015 |
Insert Groovy Title Here |
Wolverhampton Art Gallery |
|
2015 |
Revealing the Image |
Sarah Wiseman Gallery, Oxford |
|
2010 |
The Little Street |
School of Art and Design, The University of Wolverhampton. |
|
2008 |
Traversing the Hyper-Known |
Eagle Works Gallery, Wolverhampton. |
|
2007 |
The Nirvana Experiment |
The Small Gallery, Wolverhampton. |
|
2005 |
For The Fourth Wall |
Eagle Works Gallery, Wolverhampton. |
|
. |
Group Exhibitions
|
2024 |
Start The Press! |
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham |
|
2023 |
Valuable Conversations |
Wolverhampton Art Gallery |
|
2020 |
Beyond Surface |
Sarah Wiseman Gallery |
|
2019 |
Enough Is Definitely Enough |
General Practice, Lincoln |
|
2016 |
Line & Surface |
Sarah Wiseman Gallery |
|
2013 2013 |
Recherché Affordable Art Fair Hampstead |
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Sarah Wiseman Gallery |
|
2012 2012 |
West Midlands Open Affordable Art Fair, Hampstead |
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Sarah Wiseman Gallery |
|
2011
2011 |
Surface Tension
Affordable Art Fair, Hampstead |
Two person show across two venues: Sarah Wiseman Gallery and The North Wall, Oxford
Sarah Wiseman Gallery |
|
2011 |
Four Generations of Painters |
Eagle Works Gallery, Wolverhampton |
|
2010 |
Neither/Nor |
The Arena Gallery, the cooperative program - Liverpool Biennial. |
|
2009 |
Viral Sublime |
Eagle works Gallery, Wolverhampton. |
|
2009 |
MA & Other Post Graduates |
Atkinson Gallery, Somerset. |
|
2009 |
Art Spotting |
Sarah Wiseman Gallery, Oxford |
|
2007 |
Twelvefourbythree |
Eagle works Gallery, Woverhampton |
|
2007 |
Birmingham Open |
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery |
|
2006 |
Nowadays |
Sarah Wiseman Gallery, Oxford |
Publications:
Harris, S. (2014) The Virtual, Painting and Celluloid Framing in The Oxford Handbook of Virtuality. Grimshaw, M (ed.) Oxford University Press.
Harris, S and Onions, L. (2023) Printmaking Communities at the Edge of Chaos. IMPACT Printmaking Journal | Issue | 2023
Refereed Journal Articles
Harris, S. (2010) Pictorially Abstract: The Illusion of The Real, De-search: Postgraduate Journal of Art and Contemporary Culture. No 1, Vol 1. Online-Peer reviewed
Independent Grants and Awards
|
2015 |
Image of Painting used for the cover of Sonic Virtuality: Sound as Emergent Perception. Oxford University Press. Grimshaw, M and Tome Garner |
|
2013 |
Painting used for the cover of Oxford Handbook of Virtuality. Oxford University Press. Grimshaw, M (ed.) |
|
2010 |
Painting featured as the poster/advert campaign for the MA & Other Post Graduates exhibition at the Atkinson Gallery |
|
2009 |
Arts Council Small Grant
|
|
2008 |
CADRE PhD support funding |
|
2007 |
Arts Council Small Grant
|
|
2006 |
Featured in Staffordshire Life, September issue |
|
2005
|
Arts Council Small Grant
|
|
2004 |
The Daler-Rowney Award for Excellence in Painting |
Education
|
02/07- To Date |
PhD Research Program
|
University of Wolverhampton |
Completion date 2015 |
|
09/05-09/06 |
M.A. Art and Design Network: Fine Art
|
University of Wolverhampton |
Pass with Distinction |
|
09/01- 06/04 |
B.A.(Hons). Fine Art: Painting
|
University of Wolverhampton |
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