Alexis Harding

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Alexis Harding (born 1973) [1] is a British artist, noted for winning the John Moores Painting Prize.

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Harding graduated from Goldsmiths’ College in 1995, and the next year was featured in the New Contemporaries exhibition. His work Slump/Fear (orange/black) won the John Moores Painting Prize in 2004, selected by a jury that included Jarvis Cocker, Gavin Turk, Callum Innes. Harding was himself a jury member for the prize in 2024. His first career retrospective show was exhibited in Milan in 2024.

Harding's signature style, described as "gloopy abstracts" by one reviewer, uses a technique of pouring chemically incompatible paints over a guttering, allowing them to drip and glide under the influence of gravity. A reviewer for The Times commented that this prompts questions about "the tension between chance and control in artistic practice", while a paper in Microchemical Journal has highlighted the long-term instability of the work, and consequent conservation issues, this causes.

Early life

Harding was born in London. He studied fine art at Goldsmiths’ College from 1992 to 1995. [1]

Career

In 1996, Harding's work was included in the New Contemporaries exhibition at Tate Liverpool and Camden Arts Centre. [1]

He won the John Moores Painting Prize in 2004 with his work Slump/Fear (orange/black). [2] He was selected by a jury that included Jarvis Cocker, Gavin Turk and former John Moores prizewinner Callum Innes. [3] The same year he had a solo exhibition at Andrew Mummery Gallery. [4]

In 2011, Harding exhibited a solo show at Rubicon Gallery, Dublin. [5]

Harding was himself a member of the jury for the John Moores Prize in 2023 alongside The White Pube, Chila Kumari Burman, Marlene Smith and Yu Hong. [6]

Harding exhibited a career retrospective at Palazzo Lombardia in 2024, entitled Alexis Harding: 20 years 20 seconds. [7]

Style and technique

Harding's John Moores prize winning work Slump/Fear (orange/black) was described by Laura Gascoigne in The Spectator as "a messy outburst against the pattern-making impulse, spoiling a surface of perfect checks with an ugly tear". [8] His works were called simply "gloopy abstracts" by Rose Jennings in The Observer . [9] Barry Schwabsky wrote for Artforum that the titles of Harding's paintings "give a pretty clear idea of the results", citing Slump/Fear, Ruinart, Collision and Collapsed Painting as examples. [4]

Writing for The Times , Catherine Leen described Harding's signature style as resulting from a technique of pouring household gloss paint onto wet oil pigment through a perforated guttering. The artist then further manipulates the paint, or allows it to slide, often then hanging the painting while it is still wet. Schwabsky described the resulting effect as a "puckering and warping" of the painting's surface, with the effects of gravity sometimes leading to the paint sliding off its support and hanging like rags. Paint can then puddle below the work "if the painting's hung fresh enough". According to Leen, Harding's style prompts questions about "the tension between chance and control in artistic practice". [10] [4]

This style was subject of a paper in Microchemical Journal, "Chemistry of modern paint media: The strained and collapsed painting by Alexis Harding". It explains that a key part of his practice is the "chemical incompatibility" of the different paints used. [11] The paper investigated Harding's 2003 work Quartet, prepared with heavy linseed oil and oil paint. Harding's intention was the create a dried film over which paint could sag and glide over a period of six months. The paint continued to move after this period, and in 2014 the painting surface was still sticky. The paper's authors conclude that while the materials used may appear similar, mixing them without proper consideration of their different properties leads to a fragility of the artwork, causing conservation issues and the instability of the paint in the long term. [11]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Harding, Alexis, b.1973 | Art UK". artuk.org. Retrieved 2024-12-13.
  2. ↑ "Scouse stew". The Guardian. 2004-09-21. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-12-13.
  3. ↑ "John Moores exhibition 23". National Museums Liverpool. Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  4. 1 2 3 Schwabsky, Barry (January 2004). "Alexis Harding; Andrew Mummery Gallery". Artforum . 42 (5): 166 – via Gale.
  5. ↑ Tipton, Gemma (2011-05-02). "Alexis Harding". Artforum. Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  6. ↑ "John Moores Painting Prize 2023". National Museums Liverpool. Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  7. ↑ Vaccari, Sarah (2024-11-07). "Milano, the exhibition "Alexis Harding: 20 years 20 seconds" inaugurated at Palazzo Lombardia". La Milano (in Italian). Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  8. ↑ Gascoigne, Laura (2004-10-09). "Merseyside invasion". The Spectator . 296 (9192): 61 – via Gale.
  9. ↑ Jennings, Rose (2004-09-26). "Hello, this is Trigger. Get me room service". The Observer. ISSN   0029-7712 . Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  10. ↑ Leen, Catherine (2006-05-28). "Art Choice". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  11. 1 2 La Nasa, J.; Nodari, L.; Nardella, F.; Sabatini, F.; Degano, I.; Modugno, F.; Legnaioli, S.; Campanella, B.; Tufano, M. K.; Zuena, M.; Tomasin, P. (2020-06-01). "Chemistry of modern paint media: The strained and collapsed painting by Alexis Harding". Microchemical Journal. 155: 104659. doi:10.1016/j.microc.2020.104659. ISSN   0026-265X. The core of his painting practice is the "chemical incompatibility" between different paints and the oeuvre' creation follows a multi-step procedure, depending on the artist's requirements.
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