1967 Born, Scotland
1998 Glasgow School of Art, BA (Hons) - Painting
Anthony Scullion
24 September - 13 October
1967
Born, Scotland
1998
Glasgow School of Art, BA (Hons) - Painting
GROUP
EXHIBITIONS (SOUTH AFRICA)
1994
Volkskas Atelier Exhibition, Natal Society of Arts, Durban
1995
Johannesburg Biennale Fringe
Cunning Stunts, Newtown
Artspace, Johannesburg
1996
Eurovirus, Carfax, Johannesburg
Eurovirus 2, Carfax,
johannesburg
Roadkill, Foundation for
Creative Arts, Johannesburg
Exhibition with Peet Pienaar,
University of Pretoria
1997
Shopping Trolley Project, Primart Gallery, Cape Town
1998
Histories of the Present, University of the Witwatersrand
Art Auction, Carfax,
Johannesburg
Sacred Spaces, Carfax,
Johannesburg
Nudes and Nakeds, Carfax,
Johannesburg
SOLO
EXHIBITIONS (SOUTH AFRICA)
1995
Devilliers Gallery, Johannesburg
Natal Society of Arts, Durban
1996
Natal Society of Arts, Durban
1998
Joao Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town
Standard Bank National Arts Festival,
Grahamstown
GROUP
EXHIBITIONS AND FAIRS (U.K)
1990/01
Student Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy of Arts, Edinburgh
1991
Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts Annual Exhibition
1999
Contemporary Scottish Artists, Flying Colours Gallery, London
2000-05
ART2000-2005 London, with Flying Colours Gallery
Fine Art and Antiques Fair
Olympia, London
Art London, with Flying Colours
Gallery
Glasgow Art Fair, with Flying
Colours Gallery
2001
Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition
15th Anniversary Exhibitions,
Flying Colours Gallery, Edinburgh and London
2001-03 20/21
British Art Fair, London, with Flying Colours Gallery
2001-04
Royal Glasgow Institute for Fine Arts Annual Exhibition
2003-05
Gallery Heinzel, Aberdeen 2004/2005 Coombe Gallery, South Devon
2004
Mansfield Park Gallery, Glasgow
2005-07
Beaux Arts, Bath, various mixed shows
2007
London Art Fair, with Beaux Arts
SOLO
EXHIBITIONS (UK)
2007
Beaux Arts, Bath
2000-06
Flying Colours Gallery, London
AWARDS
1991
James Torrance Memorial Award (RGI, Glasgow)
2005
Short Listed for Garrick-Milne Prize
CATALOGUE TEXT
Pensive,
caught in mid-thought, immersed in the ebb and flow of everyday existence, Tony
Scullion’s protagonists and the empty spaces they inhabit are far removed from
the shock and awe of the more conspicuous art of our modern times.
In essence his work, consisting entirely of portraits and figures in
space presents us with simple yet fundamental dilemmas inspired by the
experience of our own mortality.
Whilst
the figures look either towards us, or within our sphere of vision, neither
their mien nor their environs offer a clue as to the reason for their presence.
We are apparently being gently provoked to respond. With their plain
clothing they appear dated, or even timeless, and could
perhaps be characters from Samuel Beckett’s trilogy, or equally James
Kelman’s modern day Glasgow.
The
charcoal and ink drawings (Head study, Years Ago) and the strong
angular lines of the painted figures are reminiscent of Giacometti, who himself
shunned the trend among his peers towards surrealism, and persisted with his
pared-down, heavily reworked, isolated figures. Warm reds draw the figures out of the often more earthen-hued
backgrounds, in a dramatic manner rich in emotional sensitivity that calls to
mind the chiaroscuro self-portraits of Rembrandt.
The
clarity of the emerging figures, and the looser, more spontaneous stirred up sea
of colour they emerge from, imbue the The Visit, or The Good Samaritan
with a certain poignancy. There is
a moving sense of lostness, wholly reminiscent of the circular philosophical
musings of Vladimir or Estrogan in Waiting
for Godot. The painting titles
do not bring these quiet vignettes toward resolution, but simply throw up more
paradoxes- the Accidental Angel is not obviously angelic, though as with
the figure in the Anonymous portraits, he possesses a kind of urban
nobility, accentuated in Anonymous II by the upward perspective, and the
use of a circular, ‘commemorative’ format. The Free Spirit has a
barrier blocking his progress. Alternatively the designations demand more
questions, as in Journey’s End (what journey?) or The Visit (who
is visiting who?).
Anthony Scullion has produced a body of work which, with a careful balance of calculation and liberated painting breathes life into characters who, just as with Beckett’s plays, are for most of us, most of the time, beyond prose or thought and therefore pretence. Instead of the frailty and hard edges being forbidding, the artist succeeds in drawing us in towards the heart of the matter. We recognise something of our own lives and of the world around us in the gestures, the demeanour, the contemplative place depicted. It is in the warm human glow of this recognition that the rare and affecting essence of this work is located.
Aidan Quinn
August 2007