Contemporary Masters from Britain: 80 British Painters of the 21st Century

About

Along with the exhibition, six of the exhibiting artists - Marco Cali, Julian Brown, Lucy Cox, Judith Tucker, Freya Purdue and Robert Priseman - will travel to China to talk on the subject of British painting in light of the digital revolution and explore why the hand-made work of art is more relevant today than it has ever been, connecting directly as it does with the profound human need to touch, feel and mediate emotion.

Historically Britain has nurtured some of the world’s greatest painters, from Holbein in the 16th century to Constable and Joseph Wright of Derby in the 18th, Turner and Atkinson Grimshaw in the 19th and Freud, R. B. Kitaj, Rego and Francis Bacon in 20th century. This level of excellence in the art of painting in the British Isles has continued to evolve into the 21st with a new generation of artists who have made the production of significant painting their life’s work. This show will explore these issues and look at how painting’s rising relevance in the 21st century is beautifully aligned with the resurgent growth of interest in vinyl records, knitting, film photography and unplugged music.

The artists exhibiting include: David Ainley,  Iain Andrews,  Amanda Ansell,  Louis Appleby,  Richard Baker,  Karl Bielik,  Claudia Böse,  Day Bowman,  John Brennan,  Julian Brown,  Simon Burton,  Marco Cali,  Ruth Calland,  Emma Cameron,  Simon Carter,  Jules Clarke,  Ben Cove,  Lucy Cox,  Andrew Crane,  Pen Dalton,  Jeffrey Dennis,  Lisa Denyer,  Sam Douglas,  Annabel Dover,  Natalie Dowse,  Fiona Eastwood,  Nathan Eastwood,  Wendy Elia,  Geraint Evans, Lucian Freud,  Paul Galyer, Pippa Gatty, Terry Greene,  Susan Gunn,  Susie Hamilton,  Alex Hanna,  David Hockney,  Marguerite Horner,  Barbara Howey,  Phil Illingworth, Linda Ingham,  Matthew Krishanu,  Bryan Lavelle,  Laura Leahy, Andrew Litten, Cathy Lomax,  Clementine McGaw,  Paula MacArthur,  Lee Maelzer,  David Manley,  Enzo Marra,  Monica Metsers,  Nicholas Middleton,  Andrew Munoz,  Keith Murdoch,  Paul Newman,  Stephen Newton,  Gideon Pain,  Andrew Parkinson,  Mandy Payne,  Charley Peters,  Ruth Philo,  Barbara Pierson,  Alison Pilkington,  Robert Priseman,  Freya Purdue,  Greg Rook,  Katherine Russell, Wendy Saunders,  Stephen Snoddy,  David Sullivan,  Harvey Taylor,  Ehryn Torrell, Delia Tournay-Godfrey,  Judith Tucker,  Julie Umerle , Mary Webb,  Rhonda Whitehead,  Sean Williams,  Fionn Wilson