Geoff Uglow: Quercus Robur

About

Quercus Robur, an exhibition of new works by Geoff Uglow. In these works the artists seeks to question temporality in painting, exploring the tension between the timeless and the instant. Each of the works on display takes as their focus a shared object, the Oak tree. For Uglow the Oak tree is emblematic of both the antique and the present, standing as a living witness to the landscape's history and its daily changes. By returning to his subject time and time again, the artist is able to explore this history and its link with the transitory nature of painting itself. By limiting the subject matter in the work Uglow aims to celebrate the materiality of paint, pushing its possibilities to their extreme. Each painting is completed in a single sitting, the living present transformed into an enduring object. For Uglow the painting ‘unlike the tree, is as dead as a marble bust. It only lives in the minds' eye or by touch.' Geoff Uglow graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2000, where he won numerous awards including The Sainsbury Prize. In 2010 he had a solo show Coda at the Royal Scottish Academy. His work is featured in numerous collections, including Kelingrove Museum in Glasgow and the Royal Scottish Academy Collection.