Prof Andrew Stahl
- Professor, Painting
Featured Media
Slade School of Fine Art
University College London
Gower Street
London
WC1E 6BT
Biography
Andrew Stahl has exhibited frequently in London and the UK and widely internationally across Europe, Asia and America. He has received many awards including the Abbey Rome Scholarship andthe Wingate scholarship for travel in South East Asia. He has also participated in public-funded residencies in Hong Kong, Thailand, China, Australia and Sri Lanka. His exhibitions have been frequently discussed in international newspapers and art journals and his works are in many private and public collections both in the UK and abroad including the Arts Council England, the British Council, the Government Art Collection, the British Museum, Sharjah Art Foundation and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Recent solo shows include 2022 'Sparkling City' at the Matdot Art Centre, Bangkok Thailand. This solo show happened after a 10 week residency at the Matdot Art Centre in Bangkok. A catalogue was published with the exhibition.
Another show was 'Through the City' at Tibaldi Contemporanea, Rome. This solo show included work brought from London and a large sculpture made in situ with discarded material from the street market nearby in Trastevere.
Another recent exhibition in 2019 was '1976 - Today' at the Sharjah Art Foundation - this was my largest solo show ever with work stretching back over 47 years -(a survey show with more than 200 paintings )and a large commissioned sculpture made in situ in Sharjah. I participated in talks in the show and lessons for school children in Sharjah and the show was covered by the UAE newspapers and a brochure and a catalogue were published.
2021/2 Thailand Biennale
2021 'Painters + Collection' at Nakata Museum, Hiroshima, Japan. 'I-solated Contact', Artcontact Instanbul Contemporary Art Fair, Istanbul 2021 'Art Top 10 Lockdown Interviews Exhibition', The Cello Factory, London, curated by Robert Dunt
2021 'Contemporary Art Practice in the Post-Pandemic Context', Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, China
2020 'Moving', Hanart TZ, Hong Kong
2020 'John France and European Artists in Tokyo', Sokei Academy of Fine Art, Tokyo
2020 'Signal', Centrespace Gallery, Bristol
2019 'Gubbinal', Project Native Informant, London
2019 'Beyond Boundaries' Slade /CAFA, Somerset House, London (Joint Curator and Participant)
2019 'Only Connect', Creative Center, Osaka, Japan
2018-2019 'Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB)' Thailand (received UCL Global Engagement Grant of £1846.91)
2018 'Fully Awake', Dyson Gallery, RCA London
Research Interests
For me painting is partly a poetic voyage into the unknown allowing surprise and adventure. I would say that the centre of my research emerges from having done a number of residencies in South East Asia and worldwide where I have recently found myself fascinated with the high technology and night-time sparkling cities, a wonderful contemporary electric and magical architectural environment alongside older buildings with overgrown jungle like gardens drenched in history and sometimes fragility and decay. Conflicting thoughts and understandings of what and where I am provides a source of adventure and experimentation. I want my work to reflect how visions, thoughts, ideas, memories, and imaginations flow through the mind like fragments in a river. Everything coalesces into a whirlwind of fragments having fluidity and flow through the paintings but laced with an overriding sense of euphoria.
Symbols/items in my painting and sculpture do not necessarily add up to a story, they are mind wanderings, a collection of flowing thoughts floating across the surfaces, and poetic interactions with the amazing city.
A key part of my research has been focusing on the transcultural. In 2008 Andrew Stahl (I) established the Transcultural Artist Network at the Slade. We live in an era where it takes less than a day to travel to almost anywhere in the world and different cultures offer diverse views on the history and discourse as we know it. The aim of this was to develop and broaden the understanding of the art discourse which in the UK has often been very western focused. As we know there is a history of adherence to particular cultural understandings of contemporary art. International residencies can be a means of globalising the curriculum and broadening the understanding of the context today by having culturally diverse artists-in-residence participating in the programme and producing art and interacting and revealing their processes and theoretical approach. The aim is to enhance the learning environment and to establish links across the world.
*Huang Xiaopeng - Artist-in-residence from 1 February - 1 March 2008 from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, China
*Nipan Oranniwesna - Artist-in-residence from 8 February - 10 March 2008. From Visual Arts Department, School of Fine & Applied Arts, Bangkok University, Thailand.
*Tuksina Pipitkul - Artist-in-residence 2010, Under The Same Sky, Tuksina Pipitkul, Bangkok University Gallery, Thailand
*Rafat Asad - Artist-in-residence from 23 January - 18 March 2012.
*Leung Mee Ping (Momo) - Artist-in-residence from 3 - 19 December 2012. Assistant Professor Of Art Creativity And Theory at The Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University
*Tian Liming - Artist-in-residence from 1 February - 25 February 2013, Professor and Director of Postgraduate Studies and Vice-Director of the Chinese National Academy of Arts.
*Dr Maria Kizito Kasule - Artist-in-residence from 28 October to 22 November 2013. From Nagenda International Academy of Art and Design (NIAAD) and Chair of the Department of Fine Art at Makerere University, Uganda
*Tintin Wulia - Artist-in-residence at Slade School of Fine Art, 28 September – 7 November 2015
*Jon Revett - Artist-in-residence from Amarillo Texas February 17th - March 17th, 2018.
Associate Professor Yutaka Inagawa and Professor Tamaki Ono - Two artist residency from Hiroshima 4 January to 31 January 2020
*Dr Roslina Ismail - Artist in Residence from 17 February to 13 March 2020. From the University of Malaya Cultural Centre, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
DETAILS OF INCOMING RESIDENCIES LISTED ABOVE
Huang Xiaopeng
Artist-in-residence from 1 February - 1 March 2008 from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, China.
Xiaopeng was based at the Slade Research Centre, Woburn Square; he gave a lecture on his practice and participated in the seminar and crit structure of the undergraduate programme. His residency was funded by the Slade.
He studied at The Slade School of Fine Art as a graduate student in London before returning to China to take up the post of Professor of Fine Art at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, China and his work has been shown in Never Go Out Without My DV cam – Video art from China – Museo Colecciones ICO, Madrid and The Thirteen: Chinese Video Now, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, MoMA, New York, and Whitechapel, London
Nipan Oranniwesna
Artist-in-residence from 8 February - 10 March 2008. From Visual Arts Department, School of Fine & Applied Arts, Bangkok University, Thailand.
Nipan was based at the Slade Research Centre, Woburn Square; he gave a lecture on his practice and participated in the seminar and crit structure of the undergraduate programme.
Nipan Oranniwesna was born in Thailand in 1962 and graduated with a BFA from Silpakorn University, Bangkok in 1986. Group shows include Paradise Engineering at The Art Centre, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok (2008), Globalization…Please Slow Down at the Thai Pavilion, Venice Biennale (2007), Show Me Thai at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan (2007) and Monologue/Dialogue UK - Thai art today, Bangkok University Gallery Bangkok (2006). Solo shows include Birthplace at Bangkok University Art Gallery, Bangkok (1997) and Nipan Oranniwesna at Clay Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (1996).
Nipan created work and an installation for the exhibition Monologue/ Dialogue 2 - An Exhibition of Thai and British Artists - Monologue/Dialogue Part II at Bishoff /Weiss Gallery 7 March - 12 April 2008 organised by Andrew Stahl.
The Slade and the British Council funded Nipan’s residency.
Rafat Asad
Artist-in-residence from 23 January - 18 March 2012 (originally scheduled for 2011 but delayed).
Rafat Asad was resident for eight weeks and made work at the Slade Research Centre, Woburn Square. He participated in crits and seminars and gave a lecture on 31 January presenting his work and the work of contemporary Palestinian artists to both staff and students. At the end of his stay he opened his studio to students and visitors.
Rafat Asad works in a variety of media including painting, installation and video. He studied BA in Fine Arts specialising in Painting at An Najah University, Nablus. He has participated in a number of international workshops and residencies including Delfina Studios London (where he had a show in 2006). He also has shown widely including in New York, Switzerland, Ramallah, Beirut, Saudi Arabia, and France.
Charles Asprey, co-founder of Art School Palestine and the Slade School of Fine Art sponsored his visit.
Leung Mee Ping (Momo)
Artist-in-residence from 3 - 19 December 2012. Assistant Professor Of Art Creativity And Theory at The Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University
Momo delivered the Contemporary Art lecture at the Slade School of Fine Art on the 5th December 2012 and participated in crits, seminars and gave a series of one to one tutorials. She was based in the Slade Professor’s studio in the main Slade building.
Leung Mee Ping is based in Hong Kong and has had an international career exhibiting worldwide in China, Japan, Switzerland, Germany and many other countries, this year she was in the City States section of the Liverpool Biennial. She graduated from L'Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France and obtained her MFA from California Institute of the Arts, USA. Based on the perception of daily life, her work uses a wide range of media.
Her residency was sponsored by the Arts Club Charitable Trust.
Tian Liming
Artist-in-residence from 1 February - 25 February 2013, Professor and Director of Postgraduate Studies and Vice-Director of the Chinese National Academy of Arts.
Tian Liming participated in an undergraduate painting crit and gave a lecture on traditional Chinese painting and his own work and gave a considerable number of individual tutorials. He was based in the Slade Professor’s studio where he produced a substantial body of work using traditional Chinese ink and paper. He worked from life and encouraged a group of undergraduate painting students to work alongside him in his studio and also to pose for his paintings and for each other.
Tian Liming is an extremely renowned and distinguished painter. He graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in in Beijing in 1984 and continued his study there before becoming the Dean of the Department of Chinese Painting then moving to his present position at the Chinese National Academy of Arts in Beijing. He is known for his figure paintings in ink and wash and his innovative depiction of light.
His visit was been generously supported by the UCL Simon Li Visiting Chinese Scholar Fund.
Tuksina Pipitkul
Under The Same Sky, Susan Collins & Tuksina Pipitkul, Bangkok University Gallery, Thailand, 2010, was an exhibition of work which came out of Tuksina Piptkul’s residency in at the Slade School of Fine Art and Susan Collins’s residency in Thailand as ASEM DUO Thailand 2010 exchange fellows. Both artists work with similar subjects: landscape, sky, sea from very different perspectives. ‘Under the Same Sky’ takes its inspiration from the landscape, cityscape, sky and sea of Thailand and England and creatively explores these two different approaches, processes, artists and places.
Funded by ASEM/DUO fellowship.
Dr Maria Kizito Kasule
Artist-in-residence from 28 October to 22 November 2013.
From Nagenda International Academy of Art and Design (NIAAD) and Chair of the Department of Fine Art at Makerere University, Uganda. He was been funded by the Arts Club Charitable Trust and the Slade Research Committee.
Born in 1967 Kizito was the youngest of a family of 12 children 6 of whom are surviving. The son of the late Sebastiane Kasujja and Maria Federis Nansubuga, Kizito grew up in the rural area of Masaka Districts, south of the capital city of Uganda. His parents were progressive farmers and his mother, the hero of his life, a great craft maker. Kizito traces his beginning as an artist to his mother who taught him, from an early age, the art of craft making.
Kizito joined the Margaret Trowell School of Fine Art, Makerere University, where he studied painting, sculpture and ceramics, graduating in 1993 with a first class honours degree. Later he was called back to join the faculty staff as an assistant lecturer. In 1998, he completed his MAFA degree in sculpture and in the same year embarked on his PhD in African Art history. In 2003, he completed his PhD at Makerere University and joined the Burren College of Art in the Republic of Ireland where he completed his MFA in painting.
In 2008 Kizito realised that time had come to reform art teaching in Uganda and he decided to start a new Institution of Art. By chance, before going to Ireland Kizito had started building a house for himself along Kampala Entebbe Highway. Using his personal savings from the sale of his art in Uganda and abroad, he completed his house and started the Nagenda International Academy of Art and Design (NIAAD). With 7 students, NIAAD opened its doors to the public in February 2009. Since its inception in 2009, the academy has trained 130 students. It currently has 90 full-time students.
NIAAD offers two-year diplomas in Fine Art, Textile and Jewellery Design, Fashion Design, Visual Communication Design, a Diploma in Art Education for senior secondary teachers and a two-year certificate in Art and Design. It also offers free bead designing classes to single mothers as a way of financially empowering them.
Kizito is also the founder of Fr. Ndiwalana Memorial Technical Institute in Katende and the co-founder of Ndembe primary school in Kasebuti which currently educates 150 children in the rural areas of Kalungu district.
As well as opening NIAAD, Kizito is currently Chair of the Department of Fine Art at Makerere University. His art explores the relationship between texture and patterns and sometimes challenges the social, cultural and political set ups in Africa and beyond.
He has exhibited in Africa, USA, and Europe. Many of his works are in both private and public collections.
Tintin Wulia
Artist-in-residence at Slade School of Fine Art, 28 September – 7 November 2015
Contemporary Art Lecture, 4 November 2015
Tintin Wulia (b. 1972, Denpasar) is internationally recognised for socio-politically charged works presented in witty, often interactive and participatory artworks. Her background in architecture and music (BEng/Architecture, Universitas Katolik Parahyangan 1998 and BMus/Film Scoring, Berklee College of Music 1997) as well as her practice-based research training in art (PhD/Art, RMIT University 2013) contribute to her transdisciplinary works that are often process-based and systemic, taking place across mediums. She fuses installation, mural/drawing, video, sound and performance amongst others, hacking and repurposing ready-mades, e.g. IKEA products, neodymium magnets, living matter, surveillance cameras and arcade game machines, factoring the materials' original systems into her work.
Wulia has exhibited in major international exhibitions such as Istanbul Biennale (2005), Yokohama Triennale (2005), Jakarta Biennale (2009), Moscow Biennale (2011), Gwangju Biennale (2012), Asia Pacific Triennale (2012), Jogja Biennale (2013) and Sharjah Biennale (2013). Her works have also been shown with prominent institutions such as ZKM/Center for Art and Media (Karlsruhe), International Film Festival Rotterdam, New York Underground Film Festival, Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art/MMCA (Seoul), Espace culturel Louis Vuitton (Paris), Theatreworks (Singapore) for a screening at ICA (London), FACT (Liverpool) for a screening at Liverpool Biennial 2006 and Garage CCC (Moscow) for a project at the 54th Venice Biennale. Her work is part of public and private collections in Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Netherlands and the USA, including in the Singapore Art Museum, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, He Xiangning Art Museum, and Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum where it is part of the permanent exhibition.
During her artist-in-residence period at the Slade School of Fine Art, Wulia will also develop components of her project Trade/Trace/Transit (2014-2016), a series of interventions involving a close-knit socio-economical network of cardboard stakeholders, comprising multinational groups in Central, Hong Kong. The project is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts' New Work – Mid Career grant and will culminate in a solo show in Hong Kong, mid 2016, co-supported by Osage Art Foundation.
Tintin Wulia is a recipient of the Australia Council for the Arts' Creative Australia Fellowship 2014-2016.
Jon Revett
Artist-in-residence from Amarillo Texas February 17th - March 17th, 2018. Jon Revett worked in the rotunda engaging with the students on many levels and participated in seminars and tutorials and gave a contemporary Art Lecture. He is Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at West Texas A&M University.
This residency was funded by Cass Art.
Associate Professor Yutaka Inagawa and Professor Tamaki Ono
Two artist residency from Hiroshima 4 January to 31 January 2020
From the Department of Art and Design, Faculty of Art and Culture, Onomichi City , Hiroshima University. They worked in the studios on the ground floor and gave both lectures and took part in crits making an exhibition of work produced during the residencies in the ground floor mezzanine
Partly funded by Cass Art.
Dr Roslina Ismail
Artist in Residence from 17 February to 13 March 2020. From the University of Malaya Cultural Centre, University of Malaya.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Roslina was very active producing an enormous fascinating painting installations spread over the first floor Rotunda. It was a shame that she had to leave a bit early as COVID descended on the university and so was unable to give a talk on her work.
Partly funded by Cass Art.
OUTGOING RESIDENCIES
Student Residencies
The Slade School of Fine Art has had a wonderful and ongoing relationship with the Visual Arts Department, School of Fine & Applied Arts, Bangkok University, Thailand sending recent graduates to Bangkok Thailand to be artist in residence in Bangkok University between 2003 and 2017.
These have included :
Elliot Dodd
Andy Lee
Anj Smith
Maria Zahle
Charlotte Turner
Nir Segal
Boudicca Collins
Robin Monies
Ellie Pratt
Barbara Wesolowska
SLADE STAFF RESIDENCIES
Head of Undergraduate Painting, Andrew Stahl received grants from the British Council to be artist-in-residence at Chiangmai University Thailand in 2000, at Silpakorn University Bangkok in 2003, travel was supported by the Dean's Fund. The British Council also invited Andrew Stahl to participate and assist in the nomination for Monologue Dialogue in Bangkok Thailand in 2006. He also was a co-organiser of Monologue Dialogue 2 with Bischoff Weiss gallery in 2008 when the artists in Thailand were invited back to participate in a show in London with Nipan Oranniwesna as artists-in-residence at the Slade. Andrew Stahl also received as part of TAG, a British Council grant from ‘Connections through Culture’ to visit Hong Kong to further develop a residency programme and future grant applications.
TAG also arranged for the Slade to participate with Bangkok University as part of the ASEM DUO Thailand 2010 exchange programme with Slade Director Professor Susan Collins doing a residency at Bangkok University exchanging with Associate Professor Tuksina Pipitkul of Bangkok University who came to the Slade.
Teaching Summary
Teaching Summary and Curation Activities:
I have in 2021 reduced my teaching and research contribution to 0.2 from full time. I have been working in Graduate painting instead of being head of Undergraduate Painting.
2018: 2 works acquired by Priseman Seabrook Collection in2018
Invited to lecture at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, USA November 2018
Participating in the Bangkok Art Biennale in 2018/19
2019 Organising for the Slade and CAFA (Chinese Academy of Fine Art) ‘Beyond Boundaries’ at Somerset House – I was joint curator alongside Guo Xiaohui – this was a massive staff show from both art schools and with numerous talks and public engagement events – CAFA exhibited a large amount of work flown over from China alongside the Slade participation. This has set up a series of future events with them, including a visit from Dryden Goodwin and I will be visiting them next year (2024).
2019: Extensive Solo Survey show in Sharjah UAE (my largest show yet with more than 130 paintings and sculptures)
2019: Invitation and participation in Hong Kong as Visiting Scholar and Artist in Residence at The AVA Hong Kong Baptist University – cut short by rioting which closed the university followed by covid
2022: Participating in the Thailand Biennale in 2022
2022: Working as Artist in Residence at the Matdot Art Centre in Bangkok including Solo Show (Work purchased widely in Thailand after the Matdot residency)
Invitation forthcoming to be Artist in Residence in Hiroshima Japan – delayed due to Covid renewed for 2023
2023 Interview for ‘Art Unlocked: The Priseman Seabrook Collection by artist Cathy Lomax
2023 Through my participation in CAT (Contemporary Art Trust)I have raised £13,000 for two important artists in residence in 2024 at the Slade. One artist will be from UAE, the other from China and the plan at present is that they will stay at the Van Gogh House in Lambeth and make work at the Slade and give lectures and engage with the students etc.
Many of these events above are part of my commitment to the transcultural and stimulating a more global understanding of the art discourse.In 2008 I formed the Transcultural Art Network and have arranged Artists in Residence at the Slade from Guangzhou, China; Palestine; Japan; Texas; Uganda; Beijing China;Indonesia; Thailand and Hong Kong
Exhibitions
Sparkling City, Matdot Art Centre, Bangkok, Thailand 2022 - Matdot Gallery and Blacklist Gallery
Work made from a residency at the Matdot Art Centre
Painters ± Collection 2021 2021 - Nakata Art Museum, Hiroshima, Japan
John France and European Artists in Tokyo 2020 - Sokei Academy of Fine Art and Design, Tokyo, Japan
Signal 2020 - Centrespace Gallery, Bristol
An exhibition by staff and students from 4 international universities (Slade School of Fine Art, Sokei Academy of Fine Art, Luca School of Arts, UWE Bristol)
Gubbinal 2019 - Project Native Informant, London
Andrew Stahl
1976 - Today 2019 - Sharjah Art Foundation, Al Hamriyah, United Arab Emirates
Beyond Boundaries 2019 - Somerset House, London
Only Connect Osaka 2019 - Creative Center, Osaka, Japan
Fully Awake 3:5 2018 - Dyson Gallery, RCA
Group exhibition curated by Ian Hartshorne & Sean Kaye.
Charles Danby with Neil Jeffries and Jawbone Jawbone
Michael Evans with Alan Dyer and Mark Sibley
Lyndsey Gilmour with Karin Ruggaber and Izzy Thompson
Lothar Götz with Paul Huxley and Theresa Poulton
Annette Heyer with Roger Ackling and Paul Gallagher
Natasha Kidd with Tess Jaray and Will Kendrick
Sarah Longworth-West with Estelle Thompson and Jessica Burgess
Kevin O’Brien with Sam Fisher and Rosa Lee
Tim Renshaw with David Ryan and Nancy Milner
Dominic Shepherd with Andrew Stahl and Steve Moberly
Michael Stubbs with Gerard Hemsworth and Clara Hastrup
Virginia Verran with Trevor Sutton and Aimée Parrott
AP3 Falling 2017 - Ardel Third Place Gallery, Thonglor Soi10, Bangkok 10110, Thailand
Two Person exhibition with Thai 'National Artist' Panya Vijinthanasarn:
AP3 Falling
Sitting in an unusually hot steamy London this July thinking about my forthcoming exhibition with Panya in an even hotter Bangkok, dreaming of that sparkling city and its intensity- a dream lying ahead. Bangkok’s sparkling green lights, red lights, orange lights, a futuristic city bending around the river, fragments remembered: enormous golden and beautiful fading Buddhas, pagodas and boats on the flowing river. Justin’s music from the dark mysterious Smalls emerges.
I am sitting listening to other exquisite music - Wax Tailors version of ‘Que Sera’ while considering the title of show AP3 Falling I dream of falling, of feeling weightless, floating down, flowing over the edge, flowing air all around as I dream into a floating mode. I float down the Chao Phraya River discovering new and wonderful remnants, glimpses of the old and new world passing by. Going deeper down, entering the magic unknown - there’s so much we don’t understand, but just like the title of the song ‘What will be, will be’
This exhibition is the third joint exhibition of Andrew and Panya, coming from different cultural perspectives the exhibition highlights their interest in the transcultural with both differences and synergies.
In Panya Vijinthanasarn’s spiritual paintings he sometimes refers to fragments and memories of the past, exquisitely beautiful with hidden surprises. His paintings contain a secret and magical archetypal symbolism that is enhanced by their materiality.
Andrew Stahl’s paintings also refer to past experience from Rome to Bangkok. These also symbolic paintings borrow gravity allowing the paint with its materiality to fall and naturally flow, thoughts appear and memories and expressive gestures conflict and encourage the pull of gravity.
When we fall we lose stability and enter the unknown - the words from the song emerges – ‘Everyone I have something to tell you – the moment we have been waiting for is here …..Despite the instability of the era we live in ‘I believe in the future’.
Falling and dreaming………
Andrew Stahl 16th July 2017
Monologue/ Dialogue 4 2017 - Oil Paint On Metal Sculptures - Koppells Project Space, London
Group Exhibition. Including invited artist from UK and Thailand.
Monologue Dialogue 4, Mysticism & Insecurity. 2017 - Koppel Project, 93 Baker Street, London W1U 6RKL
The Monologue Dialogue series has grown from a British Council initiated and funded residency and exhibition in Bangkok, Thailand. From then onwards a series of exhibitions have taken place in Bangkok and London with an evolving and expanding group of participating artists. The last exhibition was in 2014 at the BACC (the Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre). The key focus for the artists has been to install or construct work in a space/gallery together and in some way to reflect on the transcultural nature of today’s discourse for artists.
Opening on the 3rd of May 2017 at the Koppel Project Baker Street, MD4 continued with an expanded number of participating artists from Thailand, the UK, Bangladesh, China, and Japan. The participating artists were: Eric Bainbridge, Rana Begum, Tintin Cooper, Yvonne Feng, Miranda Housden, Neil Jeffries, Sansern Milindasuta, Atsuko Nakamura, Nipan Oranniwesna, Be Takerng Pattanopas, Tuksina Pipitkul, Nathaniel Rackowe, Andrew Stahl, Kai Syng Tan, Jedsada Tangtrakulwong, and Panya Vijinthanasarn. The exhibition was curated by Andrew Stahl,
The title of the exhibition Mysticism and Insecurity can refer to perceptions of the mystical and magical nature of human life across all cultures; insecurity however can refer to the inability of art to fully express and realise these transcendent ideas for multiple reasons, primarily though because of the world’s materiality, because of materials being resistant, dragging against intentions even for the use of language, and symbolism. This resistance is what is most ecstatic and interesting, where the material itself whether it is paint, objects, performance or virtual media contains the magic and frailty of our existence by being resistant to manipulation. The one thing that unites us all is our materiality and a sense of ‘is-ness’.
The exhibition was supported by UCL Global Engagement and the Thai Embassy in honour of King Bhumibol Adulyadej Rama IX.
Hot Summer by the Khlong 2017 - YenakartVilla,69 Soi Prasat Suk, Yen Akat Road, Kwaeng Chongnonsee, Khet Yannawa, Bangkok
A visit by Andrew Stahl to Thailand in the 80’s as part of a British Council show initiated a fascination with Thailand. A number of artists’ residencies and exhibitions have followed in the intervening years. Andrew Stahl exhibition at YenakArt Villa: Hot Summer by the Klong exhibits his paintings made during a recent residency near Bangkok’s Chinatown where he spent a large part of the summer 2016.
The paintings reflect on the experience, memories and thoughts of this time spent working intensely through the heat and travelling to the sea. They also reflect on a journey to Rome just before the summer, which revived his fascination with fountains as a source of surprise and joy. These paintings have a new fluidity and flow. Momentary visions, thoughts, memories and imaginations coalesce into a whirlwind of fragments held together by an overriding sense of euphoria at the beautiful country of Thailand. The intense energy of the city acts as a contrast to the expanse of blue that fills the horizons of the vision in the islands dipped in the sea.
The exhibition consisted of both large and small works, drawings and a number of sculptures including one made on the lawn in the architecture garden of the gallery.
Walking Through the City 2017 - Yenak Art Villa, Bangkok, Thailand; East Asiatic Company Building, Bangkok, Thailand; Creative Centre Osaka, Osaka Japan; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE,; Tibaldi Arte Contemporanea, Rome Italy; Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong
No Monkey Business 2016 - Q Park, China Town, London
A one day exhibition in the car park in Chinatown to celebrate the Year of the Monkey
DACS Foundation Auction 2015 - Londonewcastle Project Space, 28 Redchurch Street, London E2 7DP
An Exhibition to raise money for DACS. I contributed a small painting called 'Gion Rain'
Home 2015 - Curitiba, Brazil
This was a group exhibition curated by Paula de Ramos that took place in a house in Curitiba, Brazil which I participated in including the following artists:
Kim Alexander, Lara Akinnawo, Nathalia Arduini, Camilla Bliss, Bea Bonafini, Eze Chimalio, Charlotte Chw, Juliana Coelho, Isabel Collins, Sophie Dixon, Cecilia Granara, Sérgio Gonçalves Jr., Phillip Raymond Goodman, Emily Harmer, Frank Harris, Lily Hawkes, Katja Heber, Miranda Housden, Summer Hung, Lara Jacoski, Stephen Kirin, Yane Kritski, Alexandre Linhares, Cassiana Maranha, Luisa Mazarotto, Alex McNamee, Diogo Messias, Liane Mestrinho, Jude Cowan Montague, Bruna Mush, Sissa Oliveira, Kaajel Patel, Miranda Pissarides, William Pham, Andreia Porto, Juliana Cristina Silva, Ayesha Singh, Isabelle Southwood, Andrew Stahl, Andrew Stys e Ana Tiene.
Salad 2015 - L'escargot
Exhibition including staff, students and alumni from the Slade School of Art, curated by Andrew Stahl, Head of Undergraduate Painting Department. Slade School of Art.
Artists included:
Ben Clarke, Reg Gadney, Simon Granger, Jumpei Kinoshita, Motoko Ishibashi, Neil Jeffries, Jin Han Lee, Alastair Mackinven, James Ng, Vaishali Prazmari, Ellie Pratt, Paul Richards, Liz Rideal, Babette Semmer, Andrew Stahl, Charlotte Verity, Virginia Verran, Barbara Wesolowska, Tom Worsfold and Vivien Zhang.
Starter 2014 - L'Escargot, 48 GHreek Street, London W1D 4EF
This was one of two group exhibitions that I organised at L' Escargot restaurant at the invitation of the restaurant manager Brian Clivaz. This restaurant has a well known history of staging art exhibitions in a public engaged space. The accompanying text was:
This new exhibition ‘Starter’ of mainly paintings and wall works placed in the main dining area is the first of a variety of diverse exhibitions planned for L’Escargot in Soho. These artists here are chosen for their diversity and the discussion they bring to their field. The artists exhibiting both in this show and in future shows over the next few months in this new cultural hub are celebrated; some have immense experience and some however brilliant are just beginning their voyage of discovery. All however represent a tasty discussion about the possibilities that face artists making contemporary art today. A restaurant is a place of consumption. These works need to be consumed, savoured, chewed and swallowed. Some of the works may be annoying, some may fail, some may be awkward and hard to swallow, some will be exquisite, finely flavoured and full of delicacy and joy. They are all however operating at the highest level and variously engage with the exotic, the cerebral, the romantic, the emotional, the symbolic and the abstract.
The show is organised by Andrew Stahl.
The artists include: Phil Allen, David Burrows, Kate Bright, Jeffrey Camp, Alan Chan, Susan Collins, Dan Coombs, Graham Crowley, Jeff Dennis, Yvonne Feng, Marcela Florido, Neil Jeffries, Brighid Lowe, Alastair Mackinven, Mali Morris, Michael Page, Andrew Stahl, Mike Silva, James Robertson and Sean Steadman
Monologue/Dialogue 3 2014 - Oil Paint On Metal Reliefs - Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre
group exhibiton of 8 British and Thai artists,aiming to promote cross cultural conversation and debate.
Memory and Painting Thoughts 2014 - Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre, Thailand; Yenak Art Villa, Bangkok, Thailand; East Asiatic Company Building, Bangkok, Thailand; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE; Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong
(2014) You Are Not Alone 2014 - Stoke Newington Library Gallery, London
(2014) The Artists’ Folio 2014 - Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford Museum
(2014) 100 Tonson Gallery 10th anniversary exhibition, curated by Rirkrit Tiravanija 2014 - 100 Tonson Gallery, Bangkok
(2014) ‘(Detail)’ 2014 - H Gallery, Bangkok and Transition Gallery, London and Usher Gallery, Lincoln, UK
(2014) Conversations: The Vivid Real; Two-person exhibition with Panya Vijinthanasarn 2014 - Thavibu Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
(2014) MD3 Fragility and Monumentality 2014 - Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre (BACC)
I am curating this exhibition - one of the largest exhibitions yet of Thai and UK art at the Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre, the main public art gallery in Thailand.
I personally will only have 2 pieces (one 6-metre wide painting) but in the show there will be a large quantity of work from the 12 UK and Thai artists in the 1200 sq metres space on the 9th floor.
MD3 Fragility and Monumentality
This exhibition Monologue Dialogue 3 continues an important conversation initiated 8 years ago in Thailand supported by the British Council resulting in exhibitions of a group of British and Thai artists in both Bangkok and London. The group of artists participating in this third exhibition has evolved organically to include new artists that are interested in this kind of diverse, international and unpredictable dialogue. The key words here are fragility and monumentality. This show illustrates nothing. It is not an illustration of a theory or concept; it embraces the poetic and uncertainty will sometimes surface. The artists will interact, fabricate, assemble, paint and construct this show – we expect an electric conversation with excitement and perhaps even failure. Failure and nothingness are key words in art and ones that can be embraced resulting in fragility and a vision that is unexpected. Monumentality is about presence, and can be about the awkwardness of being.
Tuksina Pipitkul will surprise us with her large white sculpture, a new version of ‘Respond’ that holds the space; the complexity of Tintin Cooper’s pavilions provide a cross between sports stadiums and modern shrines; Nipan Oranniwesna is planning a new and ambitious installation especially for the exhibition; Neil Jeffries is making a series of small wall relief works situated somewhere between painting and sculpture; Nathaniel Rackowe will make sculptural neon installations with a strong sense of the urban; Miranda Housden will play with the unexpected attempting to suspend a giant chandelier from the ceiling; Panya Vijinthanasarn has made a very large painting touching on chaos and unpredictability, playing with the words nuclear and new clear and an image of the Buddha; Jedsada Tangtrakuwong will create a surprising and monumental site-specific installation integrating (or not) with the architectural structures in the space; Eric Bainbridge will arrive with The Ghost of Jimmy the Nail and will make a sculpture in situ; Be Takerng Pattanopas will install a 20-metre-wide new edition of gas-p which will include sound elements and comprise of two long tapered tunnels, leading to mysterious luminous counter-forms of human figures; Atsuko Nakamura will make a new sculptural installation, scavenging for wood and natural materials such as driftwood, salt, sugar, and water and will make a video; Andrew Stahl will include a large painting, The Death of Trotsky.
This exhibition on the entire 9th floor of the BACC provides a nervous platform for an extraordinary conversation that will develop between the artists participating and their artworks. There will be a dynamic range of installations, sculptures and paintings from this extremely diverse group of artists that touch on a range of contemporary issues such as the transcultural language of art, spectacular painting and installation and artistic dialogue.
The Artists:
Andrew Stahl/ Atsuko Nakamura/ Be Takerng Pattanopas/ Eric Bainbridge/ Jedsada Tangtrakuwong/ Panya Vijinthanasarn/ Miranda Housden/ Nathaniel Rackowe/ Neil Jeff
(2013) Not Another Art Project 2013 - The Barefoot Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka
(2013) British Art Festival Siam Paragon 2013 - Siam Paragon, Bangkok
(2012) Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2012 - Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly, London
Invited by Tess Jaray to contribute some paintings to the specially-curated main room of small paintings; one of my paintings is illustrated in the catalogue.
(2012) 100 PRINTS 2012 - Flowers Gallery, London
A group show of 100 artists who make prints.
(2012) CIRCUS TERMINAL Travelling Exhibition 2012 - The Tabernacle, Powis Square, Notting Hill, London W11
This is a travelling show curated by Chutima Kerdpitak. Starting in London, it travelled to Spain and France, Thailand, Philadelphia, Holland, Suriname among others. This show looks at the boundaries between outsider art and mainstream practice. The exhibition was accompanied by a conference on the value of art education. Andrew Stahl was one of the main speakers.
(2012) CONFLICTS OF INTEREST curated by Brian Curtin 2012 - H Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
This exhibition was a 3-person exhibition curated by Brian Curtin at H Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand. The artists were Andrew Stahl, Thaiwijit Phuengkasemsomboon and Sujin Wattanawongchai. The show excites tensions and antagonisms for considerations of what contemporary painting practice is and does. Moving outward from purportedly traditional notions of painterly craft to vacillations between the intimate and the vulgar, the observed and the cerebral, art historical preoccupations and thoroughly contemporary experiments, 'Conflicts of Interest' seeks to highlight divisions rather than resolve them. This disunifying theme inquires into how, for example, the rhetoric of authentic expression can be reinvigorated by juxtaposition with the slapdash and ironic, without the latter losing potency. Further, painting’s vexed relationships to visual and material culture at large are acknowledged; between text and image; the streamlined and the visceral; the appropriated and the invented; the assimilated and disruptive; and form and formlessness.
'Conflicts of Interest' essentially takes a skewed look at conservative understandings of painterly methods and forms in order to provoke radical relationships and fresh perceptions.
(2012) The Perfect Nude 2012 - Wimbledon Space, Merton Hall Road, London SW19 3QA
This exhibition was shown in three places. Firstly it opened in Wimbledon Space and then toured to Phoenix Gallery, Exeter followed by Charlie Smith Gallery in London.
(2012) Kindliness 2012 - Silpakorn University, Bangkok
(2011) Uncooked Culture, 'WhaTTo Dip' 2011 - Chiang Mai University Art Museum, Chiang Mai, Thailand
'WhaTTo Dip' is the phonetic pronunciation of the Thai word meaning 'Raw Material'. I had 5 drawings in this group international exhibition in Thailand at Chiang Mai University Art Centre organised by Uncooked Culture. This exhibition contained 36 artists from 12 countries and was organised by Uncooked Culture founder Chutima Kerdpitak.
(2011) Unearthed 2011 - Warton House, 150 Stratford High Street, London
Curated by Neville Gable, artist-in-residence at the Olympic Park. 'Unearthed' was an exhibition and archive which sought to reveal the cultural history of Carpenter's Road Studios which used to be on the site that the Olympic Aquatic Centre is placed in the Olympic Park Stratford. These studios were managed by Acme and were occupied by 500 artists between 1985 and 2001 including by Andrew Stahl.
(2011) Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2011 - Royal Academy of Arts
(2010) SOLO EXHIBITION New Paintings, New York 2010 - Robert Steele Gallery, 26th Street, New York
(2010) Select 2010 - Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
(2009) artbelowzero°, 'The Sneeze Art Flair' 2009 - Westbourne Studios, 242 Acklam Road, London W10 5JJ
(2009/10) Small is Beautiful, 'Nursery Rhymes' 2009 - Flowers Gallery, London
(2009) Painting of the 80s 2009 - Matthew Bown Gallery, Keithstrasse 10, 10787 Berlin, Germany
(2009) Two-Person Exhibition, ANYWHERE ANYTIME ANYHOW 2009 - Ardel Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
This was a two-person show with Panya Vijinthanasarn. This exhibition continues the dialogue between Panya Vijinthanasarn and Andrew Stahl.
(2008) Small is beautiful, 'Love' 2008 - Flowers Gallery, London
Part of an annual invitation group exhibition to make a small work for Angela Flowers Gallery.
(2008) Monologue/Dialogue II 2008 - Bischoff/Weiss Gallery, London
(2008) Stew 2008 - Artspace Gallery, London
(2008) Same as it ever was: Painting at Chelsea 1990-2007, curated by Clyde Hopkins 2008 - University of the Arts, London
(2007) SOLO EXHIBITION Parasol, London 2007 - Matthew Bown Gallery, Savile Row, London
(2007) Small is Beautiful 2007 - Flowers Gallery, London
(2007) SOLO EXHIBITION Sakura, New York 2007 - Robert Steele Gallery, New York
(2007) Jumbo Shrimp, Woburn Slade Research Centre, UCL The Slade School of Fine Art, London 2007 - Woburn Slade Research Centre, UCL The Slade School of Fine Art, London
Curated by Theresa Liang and William West.
(2006) 'Portraits', Small Is Beautiful 2006 - Flowers Central, Cork St, London
(2006) Heads 2006 - Flowers East Gallery, London
(2006) Monologue/Dialogue 2006 - Bangkok University Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
(2006) SOLO/TWO PERSON EXHIBITION, Panya Vijinthanasarn & Andrew Stahl; Conversations, Collaborations and New Paintings 2006 - 100 Tonson Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
(2005) Paintings from the Nineties 2005 - Flowers Central, Cork St, London
(2005) Royal Academy Summer exhibition 2005 - Royal Academy of Arts
(2005) Figure, Place, and Time, Works on Paper 2005 - Art Space Gallery, Michael Richardson Contemporary Art, London N18JS
A group show of works on paper artists Andrew Stahl, Ray Atkins, Greig Bourgoyne, Stephen Finer, Roy Oxlade.