Robert West explores the limits and possibilities of painting, aiming to reassert paintings relevancy within the art market and society. His work positions itself with process driven painting, whereby the artist has purposefully detached himself from the traditional methods of paint application and instead explores more mechanical processes to create work.
West implements painterly strategies that endorse the expansion of his own painting knowledge through the exploration of gesture, fracture and imprint. The painting plain offers seemingly infinite variations and discovering the potential of this plain is central to his artistic practice.
'Abstraction offers the experience of mythification and spectacularisation through its mechanism to induce detachment from representation whilst simultaneously informing the invisible meaning of reality.' (Robert West)
Education
Loughborough University School of the Arts. BA Fine Art Painting (Honours). 2005-2008
Forth Coming Solo Shows 2011
The Medium is the Message. Lounge Gallery. Darlington Arts Centre. Darlington. 3rd August - 1st October
Current and Forth Coming Group Shows 2011
Debut Contemporary Inaugural Show. Notting Hill, London. 19th February - 19th March
Many Ogilvy Hands Secret Art Sale. Coley Porter Bell Offices. London. 6th April
Persona Art Festival. Rag Factory. London. 4th-8th May
Group Shows 2011
Spitklapp II. The Pedestrian. Leicester. 2nd-14th February
Group Shows 2010
Spitklapp I. Fine Art Gallery. Loughborough University School of the Arts. 1st - 5th November
Summer Salon. Islington Art Factory. London. 25th June - 16th July
How Beautiful Ugliness Is. Red Gate Gallery. London. 28th May - 24th July
Tidy. Vanilla Galleries. Leicester. 28th March - 15th April
A Moving Exhibition. AVA Gallery. University of East London. 8th - 15th March
Group Shows 2009
Orange Sherbet. Loughborough. 24th November - 24th June 2010
The Long Gallery. Hull. 22nd October - 21st November
Cork Street Open. Gallery 27. London. 6th - 14th August
Group Shows 2008
Extract. Vanilla Galleries. Loughborough. 10th November - 23rd December
Art Below Tokyo. Shibuya Underground Station. Tokyo. Japan. 25th August - 1st September
Fine Art Degree Show. Loughborough University School of the Arts. 13th - 20th June
Artists Collective
Vanilla Galleries: www.vanillagallleries.com
TV Programs 2011
Short-listed for the BBC 2 Art Series Show Me the Monet
Reviews
Jotta Magazine. October 2009. One to Watch. (Ed) Millie Findley
Dazed and Confused. Art Below Tokyo. Tokyo Edition. September 2008
Published Stories
20 x 20 Magazine. Me and Mine. Words/Visions. Issue 4. August 2010. (Ed) Giovanna Paternò
20 x 20 Magazine. The Inevitable. Basic Needs. Issue 5. December 2010. (Ed) Giovanna Paternò
