Gill Rocca

Gill Rocca is a London based artist recognised for her contemporary landscape paintings in oil. Born in Lancashire in 1971 she studied BA Fine Art at Leeds University and MA Fine Art at Winchester School of Art’s Studios in Barcelona. Since then she has exhibited regularly in solo and group shows in the UK and internationally, including a solo exhibition in Hong Kong in 2014 and representation in Australia and Canada.  Her paintings have been selected for a number of curated exhibitions and art prizes in the UK including ‘Imagined Landscapes’ at RWA Bristol in 2016, the Threadneedle Prize, NOA and The Discerning Eye and are held in private collections worldwide.

Of her work, Gill says:

‘My body of work primarily revolves around the representation of imagined landscapes. Executed in oil, the works vary in scale from intimate miniatures on resin and wood to large scale paintings on canvas. Inspired by the realism of film and photography, the paintings attempt to create a dreamlike tension between reality, memory and the imagination. Always uninhabited, shrouded in mist or captured as night draws in, the scenes pictured suggest an unspoken, unfinished narrative. The glow of streetlights or road markings act as traces in the paintings, often disappearing into the distance to merge again into empty space.’



EDUCATION
1995-1996 MA Fine Art (Distinction) Winchester School of Art
1990-1994 BA (Hons.) Fine Art University of Leeds

AWARDS
2015 NOA Award Hughie O’Donaghue Prize
1998 Arts Council North West Production Award to Artist-Curators

COLLECTIONS
2010 The Royal Bank of Canada
2006 Olympia Group London
2004 British Airways UK
2003 McGraw Hill London

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2021
‘North. South. East. West’, Beaux Arts Bath

2019
‘Small is Beautiful XXXVII’, Flowers Gallery, London
RA Summer Exhibition
‘Where Light Chases Shadows’, Beaux Arts Bath

2018
‘Transcendent Vista’, Duran Mashaal Gallery, Montreal
‘Artists of Fame and Promise’, Beaux Arts Bath
The Columbia Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries, London

2017
RWA 165th Annual Open Exhibition, Bristol
NOA 17, Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, London

2016
Imagined Landscapes, RWA, Bristol
RWA 164th Annual Open Exhibition, Bristol
NOA 16, Mercer’s Hall, London

2015
NOA 15, Royal College of Art, London
Art Central, Hong Kong with AJC Gallery

2014
The Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries, London
Small Wonders, Amelia Johnson Contemporary, Hong Kong

2013
The Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries, London
NOA 13, Royal College of Art, London

2012
ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London
The Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries, London
Solo Show ‘Near to nowhere’, bo.lee gallery, Bath

2011
‘Meet me on the Horizon’, Northcote Gallery, London

2010
Wood for the Trees, bo.lee gallery, Bath
A Visual Dialogue, bo.lee gallery, Bath

2004
‘Solid Ground’, Clapham Art Gallery, London

2003
Soft Edges, Clapham Art Gallery, London

2001
SV Open, Studio Voltaire, London

1998
Process, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
Cabinet Paintings, Blue Gallery, London