exhibition

... same as it ever was

Artists Chris Ofili, Peter Doig, Zoe Mendelson, Dexter Dalwood, Peter Peri, Alexis Harding, Chantal Joffe, Martin Westwood, Neil Tait, Martin Creed

22.Jan.08 - 24.Feb.08
Mon-Fri 9.30 am - 6.30pm (closed Bank Holidays)

Arts Gallery
Arts London, 65 Davies St
London W1K 5DA
020 7514 6448
gallery@arts.ac.uk
www.arts.ac.uk
Tube Bond Street, Oxford Street, Mayfair / Cork Street

Painting at Chelsea 1990 - 2007, curated by Clyde Hopkins

The Arts Gallery is pleased to present ...same as it ever was featuring modern painting luminaries including Chris Ofili, Peter Doig, Dexter Dalwood, Alexis Harding, Chantal Joffe, Peter Peri, Martin Westwood, Neal Tait and Martin Creed it is a unique survey show that examines the impact that Chelsea College of Art and Design tutor Clyde Hopkins had on some of the most important contemporary painters of the past two decades.

An exhibition demonstrating the influence of one man on the discipline of painting, this epic show, encompassing almost fifty artists across three galleries, is a celebration of Clyde Hopkins’ twenty years as head of the hugely influential painting courses at Chelsea.

The exhibition reveals some of the variances and developments in painting and arts education since 1990, the wide scope of the disparate mediums and styles within the boundaries of painting.

Highlights of the show include:

A previously unseen work by Chantal Joffe, Big Nose is a tender oil portrait of a woman hunching into herself, peeping self-consciously towards the viewer.

An intense paper based work by Turner Prize winner Martin Creed, Work No. 520 is a pencil on paper abstract.

Peter Doig’s oil on canvas Metropolitan (Stag) from 2004, is featured ahead of his major retrospective at Tate Britain this spring. The painting conveys a characteristic dreamlike quality in its depiction of a drunken figure clinging to a tree in a fairy tale nightscape.

With media attention focused on the US elections, Dexter Dalwood’s Nixon’s Departure is a reminder of power’s potential to corrupt.

Chris Ofili presents a rare work on paper. Blue Sparrow is a vast piece in charcoal, gouache, ink and aluminium which offers a darkly tempting invitation to glimpse through the swathes of fabric framing the composition, towards the melodic sound of the blue sparrow.

Commenting on curating the show, Hopkins says "if this exhibition can reflect anything of the wit, creativity and optimism that seemed apparent on the course for much of this time, then I’ll be pleased".
Hopkins reflects on the time span of the show, revealing "This was a sixteen year period of my life which gave me considerable satisfaction at times, recurrent nightmares at others and allowed me to work with some great people. It could be simultaneously stimulating and stultifying, allowed me to feel as though I were somehow guiding, coaxing, this rather mutinous boatload of people through sometimes difficult waters."

A catalogue is being published to coincide with the exhibition, featuring essays by art commentator Matthew Collings and writer Dave Ryan.