| Hurvin Anderson | |
| Birth Place: | Handsworth, Birmingham, England |
Hurvin Anderson (born 1965) is a British painter.[1]
Anderson was born in Handsworth, Birmingham, United Kingdom in 1965. His parents, Elsade and Stedford Anderson, migrated to the UK from Jamaica as a part of the Windrush Generation. Growing up in the UK, Anderson did not have a full immersion in his Caribbean culture, which he explores in his later work.
Anderson has been interested in the arts since childhood. He was known for carrying a sketchbook everywhere, often drawing depictions of black protagonists and superheroes. Anderson realized he could pursue a career in art after attending an exhibition of black contemporary art with his brother.[2] This exhibition was also when Anderson began his interest in photography, which plays a key role in his artwork.
Anderson received a bachelor's degree in painting from Wimbledon School of Art and was mentored by George Blacklock and John Mitchell. Throughout his years at school he received multiple awards as well as the William Booker travel scholarship. Anderson did his graduate studies at the Royal College of Art and received his master's in painting by 1998. During this time, economic issues resulted in the necessity to find work immediately. This included both odd jobs and studio work. Anderson then went on to attend Birmingham Polytechnic and studied under their fine arts program. Anderson completed a painting fellowship with the Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education. He later completed two art residences, one in London and one in Trinidad.
Anderson often works from photographs and his memories to create works that range from delicate paintings on vellum to large canvases that can consume an entire wall.[3] His paintings and works on paper "depict places where memory and history converge" and engage with issues of identity and representation.[4] While works such as Studio Drawing 15 (2016) mark a shift toward abstraction in his oeuvre, the motifs of the barbershop, densely layered trees, and Caribbean landscapes have been consistently featured throughout most of his career. Anderson is represented by Thomas Dane Gallery in London and Michael Werner Gallery in New York.
Anderson is known for painting lush and loosely rendered observations of scenes and spaces loaded with personal meaning. For instance, the artist has become known for using a thick application of neon paints to create picturesque and collage-like landscapes. However, some of his works have been known to intervene in the history and aesthetics of photography. Anderson works both from memory and from photographs, and many of his paintings include second-hand interpretations of a first-hand experience. He bases his artwork on vintage and contemporary photographs of the British and Caribbean landscapes, which he uses to express ideas on the colonial histories of countries. At times, Anderson places Jamaican and Caribbean greenery within British landscapes to explore the history of colonial societies extracting and cultivating plants from colonized countries for their own use. Among his most acclaimed works are the Garden of Love series, which comprises paintings of Caribbean landscapes, and the Barber Shop series, which pays tribute to the historic barbershop culture of London's Afro-Caribbean community. The artist's painting style blends abstraction with figuration. Characterized by vibrant colours and complex textures, Anderson's paintings evoke a sense of nostalgia. There is a perennial sense of distance or detachment in Anderson's work that shines through in Untitled (Beach Scene).
Anderson is a British born painter. He focuses his artwork on telling narratives based in African Diaspora culture. While Anderson was born in the United Kingdom, his parents are from Jamaica. This double-sided heritage informs many of the motifs often expressed in Anderson's work. He experiments with the markers of identity in both contemporary Britain and the Caribbean, as well as the socio-cultural effects of the expanded colonial world. Anderson's work has expanded the boundaries of the genre of landscape painting in art history; through landscape and environmental themes, he addresses issues surrounding culture, community, colonial history, and identity. His works continue to speak today on globalism and ideas of capitalism as well as selfhood.
Anderson completed a Caribbean Contemporary Arts Residency Program in Trinidad in 2002.
In 2017 Anderson was nominated for the Turner Prize at the age of 52. Previously, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible for nomination, but that rule has since been abolished.[5]
Anderson received the first TenTen artist commission in 2018.[6]
His work has been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in the UK and the US. Anderson had many exhibitions throughout his career.