Geraint Evans
I am interested in the ways in which we perceive, encounter and experience the natural world and read it as landscape. My figurative, narrative driven paintings employ a stylized pictorial language to explore the idea that landscape is largley a social and cultural construct, responding to the writer W J T Mitchell's observation that "landscape is a natural scene mediated by culture"
(Mitchell 2002: 5).
My work depicts manicured or fabricated gardens and parks, shopping malls and suburban green belts, national parks and theme parks. The fictional protagonists that populate these landscapes include heavy netal campers, nudist hikers and ornamental hermits.
I am interested in both the hybridized space in which the built and natural environments meet and in our complex perception of the wilderness. The effect of ever evolving technologies and mass tourism on our perception of the natural world is another important aspect of his practice.
I grew up in Swansea, Wales and studied at Manchester Polytechnic and the Royal Academy Schools, graduating in 1993. I currently live and work in London.
My solo exhibitions include Arcadecardiff, Wales 2015; Newport Museum and Art Gallery 2012; Wilkinson Gallery, London 2000 and 2004; Chapter, Cardiff 2001; Glynn Vivian, Swansea 2002 and CASA, Salamanca, Spain 2003.
My work has been included in group exhibitions at Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London 2017; Yantai Art Museum, China 2017; Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, China 2015; Charlie Smith Gallery, London 2015; Monash University, Melbourne, Australia 2013; CAST, Hobart, Tasmania 2012; The Lion and Lamb, London 2013; Ceri Hand Gallery, Liverpool 2011; Shanghai Art Gallery China 2010; Seongnam Art Centre, Korea 2010; ICA, University of Pennsylvania USA 2007; The City Gallery, Prague 2004 and The Approach, London 2003 and 1999.
I have been a resident artist at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada and in 2003 I received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award and the Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship. I was awarded a prize at the John Moores Contemporary Painting Exhibition in 2008.
My work is held in the collections of the Derek Williams Trust, National Museum of Wales; Fondazione Morra Greco, Napoli; The British Embassy, Berlin; the Colas Foundation, France and the Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston-upon-Hull. I am the pathway leader for the MA Fine Art Painting course at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London.
