Biography
| EDUCATION | ||
| 1994–1995 | MA Painting | Chelsea College of Art and Design, London |
| 1985–1988 | BA (Hons) Painting | Chelsea College of Art and Design, London |
| ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS | ||
| 2019 | Downstream | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2015 | Bare Foot Prophet | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2012 | Jerusalem | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2010 | Lucifer Rising | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2010 | Mycelium | The Arts University College at Bournemouth |
| 2009 | In the Country of the Blind | Galerie Schuster, Berlin |
| 2001 | Recent Paintings | Clapham Art Gallery, London |
| 2000 | Contemporary Romantic | Clapham Art Gallery, London |
| 1998 | New Paintings | Cadogan Contemporary, London |
| SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS | ||
| 2019 | 10 Years | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2018 | Fully Awake (curated by Ian Hartshorne and Sean Kaye) | Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Arts, London |
| 2018 | Inaugural exhibition (curated by Dean Melbourne) | Width of Circle, Black Country |
| 2017 | Black Mirror: Magic in Art (curated by Dominic Shepherd) | TheGallery, Arts University Bournemouth, Bournemouth |
| 2017 | In Memoriam Francesca Lowe | Old Truman Brewery, London |
| 2016 | Strange Worlds: The Vision of Angela Carter | RWA, Bristol |
| 2015 | The Fantasy of Representation | Beers Contemporary, London |
| 2015 | Das Unheimliche (curated by Zavier Ellis) | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2015 | Die English Kommen! New Painting from London (curated by Zavier Ellis) | Galerie Heike Strelow, Frankfurt |
| 2014 | Saatchi’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis, Simon Rumley & Rebecca Wilson) | B1, Victoria House, London |
| 2014 | Cultus Deorum (curated by Zavier Ellis) | Saatchi Gallery, London |
| 2013 | Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis, Simon Rumley & Rebecca Wilson) | B1, Victoria House, London |
| 2012 | Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis, Simon Rumley & Rebecca Wilson) | B1, Victoria House, London |
| 2012 | Black Mirror (with John Stark) | Galerie Lichtpunkt - Ambacher Contemporary, Munich |
| 2012 | Polemically Small (curated by Zavier Ellis & Edward Lucie-Smith) | Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham |
| 2012 | Critical Dictionary | WORK, London |
| 2012 | The Perfect Nude (curated by Phillip Allen & Dan Coombs) | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2012 | The Perfect Nude (curated by Phillip Allen & Dan Coombs) | Wimbledon Space, London |
| 2012 | The Perfect Nude (curated by Phillip Allen & Dan Coombs) | Phoenix Gallery, Exeter |
| 2011 | Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis, Simon Rumley & Rebecca Wilson) | B1, Victoria House, London |
| 2011 | Charlie Sierra Lima | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2011 | Beyond the Commission | The Arts University College, Bournemouth |
| 2011 | Polemically Small (curated by Edward Lucie-Smith) | Klaipeda Culture Communication Centre, Klaipeda |
| 2011 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT presents: Polemically Small (curated by Zavier Ellis, Edward Lucie-Smith, Max Presneill & Simon Rumley) | Torrance Art Museum, Torrance |
| 2011 | Polemically Small (curated by Edward Lucie-Smith) | Garboushian Gallery, Beverley Hills |
| 2010 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) | Shoreditch Town Hall, London |
| 2010 | Territories | Galerie Schuster, Miami |
| 2010 | Papyrophilia | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2010 | DEMONOLOGY | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2010 | New British Painting | Gallery Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary, Helsinki |
| 2009 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley | Old Truman Brewery, London |
| 2009 | New London School (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) | Galerie Schuster, Berlin |
| 2008 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) | Old Truman Brewery, London |
| 2007 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) | Old Truman Brewery, London |
| 2007 | Dominic Shepherd & Julian Lee | Galerie Schuster, Berlin |
| 2007 | Meeting Place | Russell Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth |
| 2006 | Town & Country | Francis Hair Fashions Gallery, London |
| 2005 | Between Dog and Wolf (with Emma Bennett) | Clapham Art Gallery, London |
| 2005 | Bournemouth University Art Loan | Bournemouth University, Bournemouth |
| 2004 | Forever Beautiful | Clapham Art Gallery, London |
| 2004 | John Moores 23 | Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
| 2004 | Dominic Shepherd & Liza Campbell | Michael Naimski Gallery, London |
| 2002 | Print UK | Manhattan Graphics, New York |
| 2002 | If Pressed | Sherborne House Arts |
| 2000 | Defining the Times | MK G, Milton Keynes |
| 1999 | Made in England | Vasby Kunsthall, Stockholm |
| 1998 | Winter Show | E1 Gallery, London |
| 1997 | Art in the 90’s: Pure Fantasy | Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno |
| 1996 | Gilchrist Fisher Memorial Award | Cadogan Contemporary, London |
| 1995 | SBC European Art Prize | Smithfield Gallery, London |
| 1995 | 7th Oriel Mostyn | Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno |
| AWARDS & RESIDENCIES | ||
| 2004 | John Moores 23, Visitors Choice Prize | |
| 2000 | Oppenheim-John Downes Trust Award | |
| 1999 | Oppenheim-John Downes Trust Award | |
| 1998 | Artist in Residence | Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno |
| 1995 | Liquitex Excellence in Art Award | |
| 1994 | Portugal 600 Travel Award | Portugal |
| 1993 | South East Arts Training Award | |
| 1993 | Artist in Residence, Shave International Artist’s Workshop | Somerset |
| 1992 | SEA Young Artist of 1992 | |
| 1989 | Artist in Residence | Koursalo Island, Finland |
| 1988 | Henry Biddulph Travel Scholarship | |
| BIBLIOGRAPHY | ||
| 2014 | Black Mirror 0: Territories, editorial introduction by Dominic Shepherd | Fulgur Esoterica |
| 2013 | The Golden Age: Between Wilderness and Utopia, Dominic Shepherd | The New Pastoral Issue, Architectural Design |
| 2011 | The Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT | Ellis Rumley Projects & Saatchi Gallery |
| 2011 | Critical Dictionary, edited by David Evans | Black Dog Press |
| 2010 | Mycelium, Gavin Parkinson | Text + Work |
| 2008 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT | Ellis Rumley Projects |
| 2007 | Meeting Place | Exhibition Catalogue |
| 2007 | Critical Dictionary 12 & 14 | criticaldictionary.com |
| 2005 | Bournemouth University Art Loan | Exhibition Catalogue |
| 2005 | Hansel & Gretel | Volume 1, Issue 3, Tales Magazine |
| 2004 | John Moores 23 | Exhibition Catalogue |
| 2004 | The Labyrinth of the Gaze, edited by Gavin Turk | Five |
| 2000 | Dominic Shepherd & Clapham Art Gallery, Oliver Jones | What's On Magazine |
| 1997 | Art in the 90's: Pure Fantasy, Susan Daniel | Exhibition Catalogue |
| 1996 | Seventh Mostyn Open, Mel Gooding | Volume 3, Contemporary Art |
| COLLECTIONS | ||
| Paula Granoff, Providence, Rhode Island | ||
| Steve Shane, New York | ||
| Markus Winzer, Untersiemau | ||
| Private collections in Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, United Kingdom & United States | ||
Press Release
| Downstream |
| PRIVATE VIEW: Thursday 12 September 6:30-8:30pm |
| EXHIBITION DATES: Friday 13 September – Saturday 12 October 2019 |
| GALLERY HOURS: Wednesday-Saturday 11am-6pm or by appointment |
| CHARLIE SMITH LONDON is delighted to present ‘Downstream’, Dominic Shepherd’s fifth solo exhibition at the gallery. Shepherd is known for his all-over symbolic painting, seen most emphatically from his early career psychedelic phase until circa 2014. Since then, Shepherd has painted singular scenes that are advertently more subtle, but which retain the ongoing core interests of the artist: mythology, dream, nostalgia, the occult and Englishness. Following on from his 2017 exhibition ‘Old England’, where he painted mostly intimate water scenes as a means to obliquely investigate national identity, Shepherd focuses entirely on waterscapes in this exhibition, and to a heightened level. Ranging from intimate paintings at 21x24cm to substantial pieces at 92x115cm, Shepherd presents us with a technically superlative combination of swimming figures; those at water’s edge; and water studies. They are celebratory paintings, where the subjects immerse themselves freely in nature, but are also ritualistic. ‘Circle Round the Sun’ and ‘The Source’ suggest the ceremonial and reverential; and are deeply meditative paintings. In fact, the whole series carries an advisory note: slow down and seek stillness in ever changing waters. Shepherd also uses water as a signifier of alternate states. Dream, hallucination and role play have always been at the heart of his work, and the distorting effect of bodies in water suggests transformation. Pools or lakes might become liquid portals or gateways, but to where might they lead? A magical realm? The afterlife? Shepherd, as ever, implies but always retains ambiguity in order to allow the audience free interpretation according to the desire of one’s own imagination. Please contact gallery for images and further information |
Text | Gavin Parkinson | 2019
| Between the Viaducts of Your Dream |
| The psychedelic, acid-tab styling of Dominic Shepherd’s painting continues in current works such as The Shout (2019), thinly rendered over a light ground applied to linen that is allowed to show its tooth through the multi-hued strings, dabs and smudges of paint. Familiar themes are also present in the recent pictures, primarily those of the forest, the single figure in nature and the occultist, romantic, folklorish or traditional vision of a past and maybe future England. The ambiguity of place, period and person runs alongside some ambivalence. Contemporary politics, technology and culture are typically not in evidence and you can draw your own conclusions from that. What also continues in the current paintings and takes on a new concentration is the cue they take from diverse iterations of water in the natural habitat. It is true that bodies of water have been present in Shepherd’s previous work, especially those that featured in the 2017 solo exhibition Old England, to the point of constituting a sub-theme, but here their presence is constant and heightened to a major theme. Shepherd takes an intuitive approach to his art, by which I mean that in the moment of painting a stream, waterfall or winter pond his aim may well be simply to depict with reasonable accuracy through the medium of his style what is before him or in his imagination. But associative thinking or metaphor is as innate to the mind as refraction is to water; the nature of the medium alters the direction of what passes through it. The pictures have immediacy as everything does – you might observe initially their size, shape, surface, colour or scenography – but the greater part of their heft comes from the imaginative register in association, when concentration flits wantonly towards (art) history, mythology, religion, literature and/or poetic symbolism (and maybe we should add autobiography: Shepherd’s pictures speak very directly to memory, dreams, hallucination and intimate life experience, particularly those of family). For this reason, it not only pays to write inferentially and contextually about them, but it is almost impossible not to. The medium of water has offered an immense fund of symbolism to writers and artists due partly to its highly suggestive, threefold register of depth, surface and reflection (of ourselves, the sky and so on). As well as its promise of a latent, concealed world – suggested in the cosmic dimension of Shepherd’s Dark Star (2019) – water manifests our own terrain in a mirror image. In this sense, the artist paints what is already a representation, carried on the surface of the lake. Water also draws swimmers, like those in Travellers (2019), to a world familiar to birds and fish, one fully of three dimensions rather than the limited three, which is more like two, that we humans normally inhabit, fixed as we are for the most part to the two dimensions of the Earth’s surface. This is the property of water and our relationship with it that lends itself so powerfully to dreams, stirring the unconscious profoundly. Not much of this crossed the minds of pioneering modernists Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir when they invented Impressionism through studies of water, carried out at the floating restaurant and bathing place La Grenouillère west of Paris late in 1869. It is unlikely that Renoir ever thought in such terms. However, the decisive paintings of Monet and Paul Cézanne in the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century have been reassessed in recent years as less a project furthered by positivism and to do with the manipulation of materials on a flat surface than a project against the disenchantment brought on by modernity. In this interpretation, magic, prophecy and dream take precedence. Monet’s water lilies, especially the large canvases of 1914-18 at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, shod of perspective or any other conventional optical entry, assume a cosmic significance. Likewise, the early twentieth century bather paintings of Cézanne and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner are, respectively, oneiric and ritualistic, imagining a reversal of the clock of progress to a dreamtime of utopia, collectivity and natural healing. Beyond these, there is an entire canon of modernist pictures extending from the late nineteenth century up to the 1920s of which Shepherd is perfectly aware – of bathers, of women at the source, of women and men immersed in streams, rivers and baths – that whisper their presence behind paintings such as Downstream (2018). Shepherd picks up the theme at different levels, in the bathers of Downstream, The Shout, Travellers and Toad Magic (2019), and in the more overt meditations on ritual and enchantment in the paintings titled Circle Round the Sun (2019) and The Source (2019). If the first three of these leave the viewer with much of the work to do in seeking out a mythic or metaphorical dimension, then the title of Toad Magic nudges us more explicitly in the direction of mythical metamorphosis and witchcraft. The final two, Circle Round the Sun and The Source, draw upon a longstanding iconography of solitude and the forest, particularly familiar across the long history of German painting (Albrecht Dürer, Albrecht Altdorfer, Caspar David Friedrich, Max Ernst), to steer their audience more in the direction of ritual passage, clairvoyance, divination and magical thinking. Of course, Shepherd is sensitive to the tendency of a local forest lake to be also the bathing place of Diana and a river to be Lethe or Styx. To his credit, and possibly because of his wakefulness towards such things, he avoids one-to-one correspondences in his characterisations of bodies of water or through his choice of titles. These titles are rather like pedestrian paths created by footfall through the woods (also known as ‘desire lines’): you can follow them if you think they will lead to somewhere of interest, but there are plenty of other potential directions in which to roam. The intimate painting Black Dog (2019), looking straight out of a novel by Jack London, might be a record of an unexpected near-encounter, but it has an esoteric ambiance connoting chance and luck. The assumed solitariness of both seer and seen in an austere winter setting further evoke the ‘black dog’ of depression as Samuel Johnson called it, but previous references to folk and rock music in Shepherd’s work encourage a reading adjacent to Nick Drake’s late, sparse, disquieting song ‘Black-Eyed Dog’ (1974) or even conjure the Led Zeppelin classic ‘Black Dog’ (1971). It is also, the literalist on my other shoulder reminds me, a picture with a lone dog in it, but the inferential bait of the paintings is hard to resist. In all of these cases, water seems to be taking on meanings of origin and birth, healing and precognition. Among the inferences allowed by the work, then, is a diagnosis of and prognosis for our disenchanted modernity, our divided societies and our failed politics. Shepherd’s new paintings immerse us in a medium where, consciously or unconsciously, the questions stirred remain the most profound: where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? They were never more urgent. |