Biography
| EDUCATION | ||
| 2000-2001 | MA Fine Art | City and Guilds of London Art School, London |
| 1975-1978 | BA (Hons) Fine Art | Chelsea School of Art, London |
| ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS | ||
| 2024 | Rest in Paint | Century Club, London |
| 2022 | Mendes and his Mentors | The Tub, London |
| 2021 | A Retrospective: It was 20 years ago today… | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2020 | Autorretrato: The Female Gaze | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2018 | Autorretrato | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2016 | The Death of the Artist | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2014 | Nachrufe / Obituaries | BRAUBACHfive, Frankfurt |
| 2014 | Obituaries & Other Works | High House Gallery, Oxford |
| 2013 | D.OA. the Good, the Bad and the Beautiful | Gusford, Los Angeles |
| 2012 | Obituaries | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2011 | 9/10/11 | KENNY SCHACHTER / ROVE, London |
| 2009 | An Existential Itch 2001-2008 | BRAUBACHfive, Frankfurt |
| 2009 | An Existential Itch 2001-2008 | Loading Bay Gallery, London |
| 2008 | An Existential Itch 2001-2008 | Fishmarket Gallery, Northampton |
| 2007 | Death from Above | Sartorial Contemporary Art, London |
| SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS | ||
| 2023 | Mendes and the Modernists | Austin Desmond Gallery, London |
| 2023 | Mendes & Co. Deceased | James Freeman Gallery, London |
| 2023 | The Subversive Landscape | Tremenheere Gallery, Penzance |
| 2022 | Summer Exhibition | Royal Academy of Arts, London |
| 2022 | Hugh Mendes and Thomas Doran | School Gallery, London |
| 2019 | 10 Years | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2019 | Summer Exhibition | Royal Academy, London |
| 2019 | Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Award | Piano Nobile Gallery, London |
| 2019 | The Rules of Freedom | Colyer Bristow Gallery, London |
| 2017 | In Memoriam Francesca Lowe | Old Truman Brewery, London |
| 2017 | Remains (two-person collaboration with Alistair Gordon) | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2017 | Part I: Street Semiotics (curated by Zavier Ellis) | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2015 | Black Paintings (curated by Zavier Ellis) | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2015 | Doppelganger | No Format Gallery, London |
| 2014 | The Great War | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2013 | War | Jacob’s Island, London |
| 2013 | Six Degrees of Separation | Wimbledon Art Space, London |
| 2012 | The End | Jacob’s Island, London |
| 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 |
| 2012 | Polemically Small (curated by Zavier Ellis & Edward Lucie-Smith) | Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham |
| 2012 | The Id, the Ego and the Superego (curated by Zavier Ellis & Marcela Munteanu) | BRAUBACHfive, Frankfurt |
| 2011 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT presents: Polemically Small (curated by | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| Zavier Ellis, Edward Lucie-Smith, Max Presneill & Simon Rumley) | ||
| 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 | Polemically Small (curated by Edward Lucie-Smith) | Klaipeda Culture 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 | The Possessed (curated by John Stark) | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2010 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) | Shoreditch Town Hall, London |
| 2010 | Press Art | Museum der Moderne, Salzburg |
| 2010 | Papyrophilia | 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) | Gallerie Schuster, Berlin |
| 2008 | New London School (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) | Mark Moore Gallery, Los Angeles |
| 2007 | Still Life, Still | T1+2 Gallery, London |
| 2006 | New London Kicks | Wooster Projects, New York |
| 2005 | Fuckin’ Brilliant | Tokyo Wonder Site, Tokyo |
| 2005 | Art News | Raid Projects, Los Angeles |
| 2005 | Art News | Three Colts Gallery, London |
| 2005 | USUK | Lab Gallery, New York |
| 2005 | Green Door | Sartorial Art, London |
| 2004 | Forest | Rockwell Gallery, London |
| 2003 | Chockafukingblocked | Jeffery Charles Gallery, London |
| 2002 | Yesteryearnowadays | Hales Gallery, London |
| AWARDS & RESIDENCIES | ||
| 2003 | Fresh Art ‘Artist of the Year’ | |
| BIBLIOGRAPHY | ||
| 2011 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT | Exhibition Catalogue |
| 2008 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT | Exhibition Catalogue |
| 2008 | An Existential Itch, Craig Burnett | Fishmarket Publications (ISBN 978-0-9555 706) |
| COLLECTIONS | ||
| Wendy Asher, Los Angeles | ||
| Jerry Hall, London | ||
| Mauritz Huntzinger, Frankfurt | ||
| Angela Nikolakopoulou, London | ||
| Peter Nobel, Zurich | ||
| Kelsey Offield Ford, Los Angeles | ||
| Kenny Schachter, London | ||
| Steve Shane, New York | ||
| Bill Wyman, London | ||
| Wooster Projects, New York | ||
| Private collections in China, Germany, United Kingdom & United States | ||
Press Release
| Hugh Mendes | A Retrospective: It was 20 years ago today… | ||||
| PREVIEW: Tuesday 7 September 5:30-8:30pm | Scheduled time intervals by appointment only | Please contact direct@charliesmithlondon.com to book | Limited places available | ||||
| SPECIAL EVENT: Meditation for Peace led by Hugh Mendes | Saturday 11 September 2:00pm | Please contact direct@charliesmithlondon.com to book | Limited places available | ||||
| EXHIBITION DATES: Wednesday 8 – Sunday 12 September 2021 | ||||
| CHARLIE SMITH LONDON is delighted to present a Hugh Mendes retrospective exhibition at The Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, London. Consisting of over 100 paintings and spanning 20 years of work, the exhibition will provide a fascinating overview of Mendes’ career. He is known for political and obituary paintings, where he adopts the visual language of newspapers and renders in trompe l’oeil. The day of 9/11 in 2001 was a significant one for Mendes, the events of which came to fundamentally inform his practice. Timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of that fateful day, Mendes will also conduct a ‘Meditation for Peace’ at 2pm on September 11th. In his own words: “In the summer of 2001, I was studying for my MA in Fine Art at City & Guilds of London Art School. In my studio, I was incorporating newspaper clippings into still life paintings, and was working on a memorial piece to mark the 20th anniversary of John Lennon being shot in New York: ‘20 Years Ago Today’. It juxtaposed a painted newspaper clipping with another object, in this case a green apple, relating to Apple Records. That summer, I was also following the contested US election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. They were recounting endlessly in Florida and arguing over ‘hanging chads’. Eventually, they fraudulently declared Bush as the winner. Walking down Brick Lane one afternoon, I spotted a piece of newspaper on the pavement, featuring an image of an Arab with a Kalashnikov gun and some Arabic looking text. Back in the studio, I juxtaposed this clipping with an image of Al Gore and George Bush: ‘Gore Really did Win Florida’. I hung both of these paintings in my MA graduation show, which opened on September 11th. That afternoon, while my show was being marked, I idly turned on the TV at home, to see the second plane flying into the Twin Towers in New York… All hell broke out. The next day, that same image of the Arab with a gun was in all the newspapers as it was the relatively unknown Osama Bin Laden. It was a chilling coincidence. I found myself propelled into making multiple paintings relating to 9/11, the ensuing ‘War on Terror’, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. My first solo show, post MA, featured 20 of these paintings and was called ‘Into Manhattan’s Memory’. Now, 20 years later, to mark the anniversary of 9/11 and my graduation, I am returning to Brick Lane with CHARLIE SMITH LONDON to present a retrospective including over 100 paintings. During the last 20 years my work has continued to follow political global events, while increasingly focusing on obituaries, and especially those of artists. They epitomise a particular way of recording history, through the lives of individuals. But all referencing the world as viewed through newsprint, and subsequently through the painted image. This has led me to reflect on history through the lives of artists, and to meditate on the role of the artist in society. This necessarily includes my own role as an artist and my place in a long and glorious lineage. My artist obituary paintings have included many of my teachers, as well as mentors. The most recent development has been using and remaking the self-portraits of many of these artists as invented obituaries in a newspaper format¬—as if Rembrandt had an obituary in ‘The Guardian’ newspaper. It has been a particularly fascinating process to consider the styles and techniques of so many artists, as well as reconsidering how they viewed themselves. 10 years ago, I made a work on paper, where I wrote out in pencil all 3,000 names of the people who died on 9/11. This piece is now part of the Sammlung Annette und Peter Nobel in Zurich. Writing out the names took six weeks at about 6 hours per day, every day, and 75 names per day¬—it was perhaps the most meditative piece of work I have made. As part of this exhibition, on the actual 20-year anniversary day of Saturday 11th September 2021, I will hold a memorial event where I will conduct a ‘Meditation for Peace’, available to join via Zoom and in association with the nearby London Buddhist Centre. I have taught meditation there for many of the last 20 years and continue to do so. It will also be linked to Townsend Gallery in New York and local Buddhist groups there. I will also read out the names of people who died on that day for 11 minutes, echoing similar events which take place in New York every year to pay respect, as well as to reflect. We find ourselves currently in somewhat unprecedented times, facing ongoing wars, a refugee crisis, potentially catastrophic climate change and a global pandemic. I hope this retrospective exhibition and event will provide an opportunity to think about global developments over the last 20 years and to reflect on our roles within it.” |