RWA Press Releases
RWA Press Releases
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Gillian Ayres OBE, RA, Hon RA
14th March - 17th April 2004
A Decade of Ayres - on Show at RWA
As one of Britain’s most dynamic and colourful abstract artists, Gillian Ayres work has been celebrated since the 1950s and has always been at the fore of British abstract painting.
Now her latest work will be exhibited at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) in Bristol from March 14th – 17th April.
Covering the period from 1992 – 2003, the exhibition, which includes the large-scale paintings for which Ayres is renowned alongside smaller prints (many of which include hand painted detail), is the first major UK exhibition of her current work.
In 1985 Gillian Ayres received an OBE, a year later she was elected a Royal Academician. A prolific painter, her work can be found in numerous public collections abroad, including America, Australia, Brazil, Portugal and at home including the British Council, The Tate, V&A, Walker, and Whitworth Art Galleries.
Elected an Honorary Academician in 2002 by the Royal West of England Academy, this exhibition celebrates the long-standing contribution to British art that this West Country based artist has made.
Lavish and dynamic the brilliantly coloured abstract works of Ayres will fill the walls at the RWA. The high ceilings of the five spacious top lit Bristol based galleries will complement Ayres’ work wonderfully both in scale and elegance.
As Mel Gooding, curator of the exhibition describes the work:
“An Ayres painting is always a theatre of events and effects. It is as if the furious activity of a multifarious troupe of players had been suddenly frozen in a momentarily held poise …”.
The images are Ayres response to the organic world, abstractions of colour and form that have as Mel Gooding writes “Exuberance of invention and proliferation” with an urgency that matches nature itself
On visiting the galleries Ayres has written of her pleasure at being given the opportunity to exhibit in such “beautiful galleries”. The RWA in turn is fortunate to be hosting such a renowned and highly admired painter.
Mel Gooding the well known, writer and lecturer, and the author of the book (Lund Humphries 2002) has curated the exhibition with assistance from Alan Cristea and Angela Nevill Galleries.
| This Exhibition is supported by the Arts Council, England, South West. |  |
For further information please contact Fiona Swadling at the RWA : fiona.swadling@rwa.org.uk