Press Release
| GAVIN TREMLETT | Hybris |
| Exhibition Dates : Friday 26 February – Saturday 2 April 2016 |
| CHARLIE SMITH LONDON is delighted to present Gavin Tremlett’s much anticipated second solo exhibition at the gallery. In this exhibition Tremlett has created a group of oil, graphite & charcoal pieces on canvas or paper. Leading on from his earlier series ‘Amusement’ and ‘Practice’, Tremlett continues to use the portrait in order to investigate deeper lying drives. He marries impeccable figuration with material abstraction, therefore combining intention and chance to create form that simultaneously appears from and recedes into the picture plane. It is clear that Tremlett is operating beyond portraiture and deploys his subjects to challenge his audience. As the artist states: “My paintings address eroticism, sexuality and transgression. They also call into question ideals of beauty and the politics of identity. These powerful themes wrestle with the medium itself – the compelling nature of the subject matter fighting against the sensitivity and gentleness of touch employed in the brush handling and mark making.” Tremlett’s choice of source material - from classical sculpture to pornography - emphasizes the power of the gaze and augments a disruption of expectation. His subjects might be questioning, stern, melancholy, haunting or impish. We are invited to attend to them, but the point might just be that we are the ones being watched as the artist toys with the practice of looking and its inherent anticipations. By engaging a number of internal contrasts Tremlett imposes a state of uncertainty and ambiguity that transfers from subject to viewer, forcing a confrontation with our notions of concealment and disclosure. |
Biography
| EDUCATION | ||
| 2001 - 2004 | Post-Graduate Diploma Fine Art | Royal Academy Schools, London |
| 1996 - 1999 | BA (Hons) Fine Art (1st Class) | Loughborough University School of Art & Design |
| ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS | ||
| 2016 | Hybris | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2015 | We Need to Talk about Gavin | Loock Galerie, Berlin |
| 2011 | Practice | Loock Galerie, Berlin |
| 2010 | Amusements | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2008 | Be Stiff | Wohnmaschine, Berlin |
| 2006 | The Hobby | Wohnmaschine, Berlin |
| SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS | ||
| 2019 | 10 Years | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2018 | Context: Gallery Artists & Collaborators | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2017 | In Memoriam Francesca Lowe | Old Truman Brewery, 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 |
| 2012 | The 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 | The Serpent’s Tail | Witzenhausen Gallery, Amsterdam |
| 2011 | The 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 | 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 |
| 2010 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) | Shoreditch Town Hall, London |
| 2010 | New British Painting (curated by Zavier Ellis & Pilvi Kalhama) | Gallery Kalhama & Piippo, Helsinki |
| 2010 | Papyrophilia (curated by Zavier Ellis) | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 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 |
| 2008 | Prague Triennial | National Gallery of Contemporary Art, Prague |
| 2007 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) | Old Truman Brewery, London |
| 2007 | Malkunst 2, Contemporary Painting in Berlin | Fondazione Mudima, Milano |
| 2007 | The Dream of Putrefaction | The Metropole Galleries, Folkstone |
| 2006 | Icons | Chung King Project, Los Angeles |
| 2005 | Introspective Men | Madder 139, London |
| 2005 | Schmidt, Tremlett, Tzamouranis | Wohnmaschine, Berlin |
| 2005 | Faux Realism Part 2 | The Rockwell Project, London |
| 2005 | Faux Realism Part 1 | The Royal Academy Schools Gallery, Hornsey |
| 2004 | The Arrivals | The Pump House Gallery, London |
| AWARDS & RESIDENCIES | ||
| 2004 | The Gordon Luton Award for Fine Art Painter-Stainers | |
| COLLECTIONS | ||
| Thomas Rusche, Münster | ||
| Private collections throughout Europe | ||