
It is harder to unpick the past than weave the future - Steven Claydon
For me, painting is porous, it absorbs its surroundings: stains, residues, memories, footprints and energy.
I make mixed-media paintings and speculative, site-specific installations and collage fabric, metalwork and ceramics. Slow craft processes are interwoven with the ephemera of fast fashion and painting itself. The work takes its cue from alternative modes of display such as bazaars, marketplaces and street montages, materially pregnant with objects and cloth. To walk amongst it is to be part of a tableaux vivant and to traverse temporal thresholds. My process is a form of excavation, a slow reveal of things buried in the mud but also a return of clay pots to the soil.
I paint on the floor and walk on my paintings, which are analogous to rugs. I unpick various woven fabrics such as decorator’s dust sheets and canvas to form tassels and fringes. The genesis for this came while I was working for a painter - rolling up her works like carpets and interlacing the layers of gesso was like weaving with a brush. Beneath the canvas, I place other fabrics, which absorb remains and stains from above. My paintings therefore generate other paintings and are tools as much as objects.
EDUCATION
KYOTO CITY UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS EXCHANGE PROGRAMME 22
ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART: PAINTING 19 - 21
UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON 08 - 11
UCA EPSOM 07 - 08
TEACHING
CHELSEA COLLEGE OF ART, UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS LONDON 22
BATH SPA UNIVERSITY: FINE ART 21
UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON: PAINTING 21
UCA FARNHAM: FINE ART 21
UNIVERSITY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE: FINE ART 21
RESIDENCIES
VILLA LENA RESIDENCY, TUSCANY, ITALY 21
REFUSE REFUSE, ADAM THE STRAND, LONDON 21
HIGH HOUSE RESIDENCY/ ANTONY GORMLEY RESIDENCY 18
SELECT EXHIBITIONS
COME ONE, COME ALL, THE FUNCTION SUITE, LONEON 22
LOVE STRATA, LYCHEE ONE, LONDON 21
LONDON GRADS NOW 2021, SAATCHI GALLERY 21
YIELD, NO 20 ARTS, LONDON 21
ROOM SHARE, SAFE HOUSE 1 21
BERMONDSEY ART TRAIL, CELL STUDIOS, LONDON 21
DISAGIO, VILLA LENA, TUSCANY 21
PALIMPSESTS, VILLA LENA, TUSCANY 21
ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART GRADUATE SHOW, CROMWELL PLACE, LONDON 21
OBJECTS (LOST), TREASURE (FOUND), UNDERGROUND FLOWER, LONDON 21
AFTER HOURS II, BOWES PARRIS GALLERY, LONDON 21
REFUSE REFUSE, ADAM THE STRAND, LONDON 21
TALES FROM THE MARKET, EXPORT RADIO, LONDON 21
BIZARRE BAZAAR, SITUATIONISTS RCA, LONDON 20
A FISH YOU ALREADY CAUGHT, BATTERSEA PARK, LONDON 20
THE ARTISTS CONTEMPORARY, ONLINE FEATURE 20
PAINTING TONGUES, SEVEN SISTERS, LONDON 20
SOCCER STRIKE, BATTERSEA PARK 20
SNAPSHOTS, HOCKNEY GALLERY, RCA, LONDON 20
CONTEMPORARY COLLABORATIONS, RYA, LONDON 20
WIP SHOW, ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART, LONDON 20
RCA CHRISTMAS MARKET, LONDON 19
PLAYGROUND, VENUE MOT, LONDON 19
SPACESHIP. DUNGEON. ZOO, ALVARO BARRINGTON’S STUDIO, LONDON 19
REPURPOSE, WELLS PROJECT SPACE, LONDON 19
ART FOR ALL, ONE HOE STREET, LONDON BOROUGH OF CULTURE 19
SIMMER, COCK TAVERN, LONDON 18
ROYAL ACADEMY 250TH SUMMER EXHIBITION, LONDON 18
HIGH HOUSE, NORFOLK 18
NOW NOW, TAKE COURAGE GALLERY, LONDON 18
AIR: A SHOW IN THE SKY, HAMPSTEAD HEATH, LONDON 17
DAVID GITANES (SOLO), LIMA ZULU GALLERY, LONDON 16
SIXTY, LUBOMIROV-ANGUS HUGHES, LONDON 16
TANGLED IN THE BRAMBLES, C4RD, LONDON 15
QUIRKISM III, GRAPEVINE GALLERY, YORKSHIRE 15
QUIRKISM II, OVADA + THE CHINA SHOP GALLERY, OXFORD 14
QUIRKISM, FIFTH BASE GALLERY, LONDON 13
DRAWINGS (SOLO) ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, LONDON 12
STATIC DYNAMIC, COPENHAGEN PLACE, LONDON 12
SILENT MONOLOGUES, THE CRYPT GALLERY, LONDON 12
TRANSITIONAL MATTERS, DARNLEY ROAD GALLERY, LONDON 11
HACKNEY WICKED, LONDON 11
GRADUATE SHOW, UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON, BRIGHTON 11
NOW YOU ARE HERE, UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON, BRIGHTON 10
AWARDS/GRANTS
CONTEMPORARY COLLABORATIONS ART PRIZE, RYA 20
RA 250TH SUMMER EXHIBITION, SIX EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS 18
DULUX/ AKZONOBEL COLOUR GRANT 16
PRESS/ PUBLICATIONS
ART MAZE EDITION 21 21
GOING LIVE, THE ARTISTS CONTEMPORARY 21
ONLINE FEATURE, THE ARTISTS CONTEMPORARY 21
NEW MINDS 2020, DROPOUT MAGAZINE 20
GOING LIVE, BLUE SHOP COTTAGE 20
CONNECT 23, DROPOUT MAGAZINE 20
ONLINE FEATURE, THE ARTISTS CONTEMPORARY 20
ORF EVENING NEWS 20
ORF NEWS 20
ORF RADIO 20
FACING fORWARDS PODCAST 18 – 19
DROPOUT MAGAZINE 19
DROPOUT MAGAZINE 17
AESTHETICA MAGAZINE 14
THE PILGRIMAGES 14
LE COOL 11