 |
 | |
James Ursell - Represented by Artoose
( United Kingdom, 1974 - present )
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Artist: James Ursell ( United Kingdom, 1974 - present ) -
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Genres: Contemporary European Art
|
|
|
|
Biography: James Ursell is an artist for whom Dylan Thomas's ‘green fuse' is a driving force. Ursell is well known for large-scale outdoor installations, but is now concentrating exclusively on paintings that are at once pastoral, figurative and mythical.
At his family home in Devon and elsewhere, Ursell has created large-scale installations including “Garden of Love” , a giant wicker bowl set into the earth that mirrors the map of the constellations. This work attracted the attention of Spacex Gallery, Exeter and is also featured in “ 100 Dream Gardens” by Andrew Lawson.
“Nature remains rich and deep in the subconscious. It's an evolving language, and it's only in inspiration that you can find the next way forward.”
But because of their time-consuming scale, Ursell has now rejected installations and instead adopted painting exclusively; building on the basic tools of poetry and theatre he had developed. In fact, he declined an invitation to create ‘Land' art at the 2006 South Korean Biennial in order to focus on his new paintings.
“I became much more interested in the space that painting offered – it seemed like a whole new world was opening up, and immediately available to me.”
Ursell's paintings take ecology and fable as major inspirations. “ The She-Bear of Old England Awakes” is a line from Alistair Mackintosh's book “ Soil & Soul” , covering the first environmental case to be won on religious grounds. The bear represents a reawakening of an ancient yet new balance between mankind and nature, a reverential custodianship of the earth.
“Here is our elephant (family portrait)” takes its title from a Tibetan proverb about venturing out to search for the thing that we already have, and have left behind. In its late-summer light and beautifully rendered human and animal figures, the painting evokes a final symbiotic union between man and nature, and also unites the English pastoral tradition with the African savannah of our ancestors – a landscape as ancient as the phenomenon of human family that evolved from it.
“I allow themes to emerge in my work naturally, and by the end of it an idea will make itself clear. Ecology runs through my recent work, which I see as a metaphorical language in itself.”
|
|
Exhibition History: 2007 Spacex Gallery, Exeter 2004 Resurgence Magazine; “12 Canvases and a Canoe”, solo show, Allsop Gallery, Dorset 2003 British Council Residency, Sacy le petit, Picadie, France 2001 Zintler Foundation Hamburg; Adrift, Rotterdam; East of Eden, Cows, Exeter 2000 Londenesian, 291 Gallery, London Biennale; Installation with Sigalit Landau at Spacex, Exeter 1999 Ocean Bound, Liverpool Biennale 1997 DAAD Gallery Residency, Berlin; Kai Hilgeman Gallery, Berlin; Atelier Sredzki Stases, Berlin; Josty Branerei Gallery, Berlin
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
