Approved: 27.11.2012

Iain Hales

Artist

Approved: 27.11.2012

My work stakes as its territory the space between painting and sculpture. While the works are often of a formal nature, the use of colour amongst the assemblages addresses painterly concerns. A sensitivity to materials and a range of scale within the work creates further juxtapositions, suggesting reference points beyond these formal concerns, from architecture, art and design to more everyday cultural

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Artist Statement

My work stakes as its territory the space between painting and sculpture. While the works are often of a formal nature, the use of colour amongst the assemblages addresses painterly concerns. A sensitivity to materials and a range of scale within the work creates further juxtapositions, suggesting reference points beyond these formal concerns, from architecture, art and design to more everyday cultural elements. The works have a plural language, collaging a range of art historical references, including modernism, minimalism, Pop and Arte-Povera. In doing so they resist classification, creating a restless mutability. This engagement with painting is evidenced most obviously through my works for the wall. Whilst technically sculptures, essentially they are concerned with flatness - approached from the front they operate as abstract compositions, until they are viewed from the side, at which point they expand into three-dimensions. This friction within the work is a crucial element of my practice. This sense of friction is also demonstrated through the range of materials found within the works, from 'high art' materials such as chalk gesso and powdered pigments to rubber floor tiles and concrete reinforcing mesh. While there are evident contrasts in the status or hierarchy of these materials, there is also an equivalence within them, with the sheen of a coloured rubber floor tile as rewarding as a polished, painted gesso surface. Beyond the sensual qualities of these materials, I'm interested in their semiotic associations; these play an important role in prompting a response to the works, each suggesting a range of connotations. My practice has always had a keen engagement with architecture. In earlier work this was expressed quite directly, now it is used in a subtler manner: through material choices, classical systems of scale, the grid, and architectural forms. I am also interested in the notion of the romantic ruin and temporality.

CV & Education

EDUCATION

2007-2009          MFA Sculpture, The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London.

2001-2005          BA (Hons) Sculpture, 1st class, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh.

1995-1998          Master of Arts, The University of Glasgow.  

 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2016                 Head, William Bennington Gallery, London.

2015                 Villa Charlotte, 9B Projects, London.

2014                 Post-Model Montage, Standpoint Gallery, London.

2013                 Euclidean Display Unit, m2 Gallery, London.

2012                 Iain Hales, COLE, London.

2006                 Folly, Hyperground, Edinburgh. Part of the Edinburgh Annuale.

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITONS

2015                 I'm in Love with Rococo, part of ITA, curated by (It's All) Tropical, Set the Controls                            for the Heart of the Sun, Leeds.

2014                 Show-Off, LeandaKateLouise, London.

                         Putt Putt #2, Turf Projects, Croydon.

2013                 Trade Show, Eastside Projects, Birmingham.

                         Sculpturing, Two Queens, Leicester.

2012                 SWITCH, curated by Phyllida Barlow, BALTIC 39, Newcastle.

                         A Wall Is A Surface, LeandaKateLouise, London Newcastle Project Space,                                      London.

2011                 Two in the Hand, Space Gallery, Folkestone.

                         26, LeandaKateLouise, London.

2010                 Underfoot, 93-99 Clerkenwell Road, London.

                         Formal Inquiry, COLE, London.

                         Changing the Nature, Purge Projects, Vuples Vulpes, London.

2009                 MA Show, The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London.

2008                 Interim Show, The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London.

2006                 Nimes Biennale, Nimes, France.

                         ESW’s New Members Exhibition, Leith Festival, Leith, Midlothian.

2005                 Magazine, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshops, Edinburgh.

                         430° and Rising, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh.

                         RSA Student Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.

2004                 Who chewed ma pencil… Total Kunst, Edinburgh.

 

AWARDS & RESIDENCIES

2013-14             Mark Tanner Sculpture Award, Standpoint Gallery, London.

2009                  Craignish Trust Emerging Artist Residency, Cove Park, Argyle And Bute,                                         Scotland.

2009                 Adrian Carruthers Studio Award, The Slade School of Fine Art (shortlisted).

2008                 Residency at the Merz Barn, Littoral Arts Trust, Ambleside, England.

2007-09            Student Awards Agency Scotland, Post-graduate Study Grant.

2005                 The Andrew Grant Bequest, Edinburgh College of Art.

 

PRESS/PUBLICATIONS

Villa Charlotte, by Emma Letizia Jones, EROS Journal – Issue VI, ‘Homotopia’, summer 2015.

Iain Hales, by David McLeavy, YAC (Young Artists in Conversation), April 2015.

Summer Salon, Ambit Magazine – Issue 217, summer 2014.

Post-Model Montage, Iain Hales: Mark Tanner Sculpture Award.  Standpoint Gallery publication, with essay – Warehouse Republic – by Chris Fite-Wassilak, 2014.

Showcase: Iain Hales, The Skinny Magazine, November 2012.

Material Man, Surface Magazine, New York, Marina Cashdan, April 2012.

 

RELEVANT PROFFESIONAL EXPERIENCE

2016                 Visiting Lecturer, School of Architecture and Landscape, Kingston University,                                    Kingston-upon-Thames.  Invited to give a talk on ‘Colour’ to Masters architecture                            students.

2016                 Visiting Lecturer, Manchester School of Art, Manchester.

2015                 Guest Critic, Visual Arts Department, Richmond University, London.

2014                 Artist Talk, Slade Summer School, Slade School of Fine Art, London.

2010-14            Guest Critic, School of Architecture and Landscape, Kingston University,                                          Kingston-upon-Thames.

2013                 Urban Design Charette, with Timothy Smith & Jonathan Taylor Architects, hosted                            by the Architects’ Journal and Argent, Birmingham.

2010-13            Artist Assistant to Phyllida Barlow, London.