What does it mean to paint the landscape of Britain today?

The landscapes presented in Standing Ground dramatically expand the British landscape painting tradition, in terms of subject matter, use of paint, and medium. Neither ‘the British landscape’, nor ‘today’s political landscape’ are fixed entities, but common threads that emerge (and at times unravel) in the paintings brought together in Standing Ground.

During and in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, social disparities – including between those with access to green space and those without – became ever more exaggerated. The context of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 reinvigorated discussion of the ongoing impact of slavery and empire on British culture.

Flooding, heatwaves, polluted rivers have all drawn further attention to the environmental desecration and climate catastrophe facing the planet (but disproportionately impacting the global south). Questions of landscape and belonging figure crucially in all of these developments. How might artists ‘Stand Ground’ in these contexts?

Landscape painting is a particularly freighted artistic genre, deeply connected to ideas of national identity. This is especially the case in Britain, where landscape painting is often regarded as the most significant historical national artistic achievement, and the landscapes of Gainsborough, Constable and Turner are sometimes seen as synonymous with British art altogether. Landscape painting is thus fundamental to narratives of British cultural identity, with the latter also fluid like paint itself. Its slippery and not always controllable quality takes on its own forms on the canvas – echoing humans’ failed attempts to subdue the natural world.

Text abridged from the catalogue essay to the exhibition by Dr Kate Nichols, Associate Professor of Art History, University of Birmingham. The catalogue, funded by the British Art Network, will be launched at the exhibition opening.

To order a copy of the catalogue or for further information about the exhibition, please contact curators [email protected] and [email protected]

The painters in Standing Ground span several decades bringing an intergenerational dialogue about landscape painting today. They are Madi Acharya-Baskerville, Said Adrus, Trevor Burgess, Frank Bowling, Jai Chuhan, Jasmir Creed, Kimathi Donkor, Bruno Grad, Grant Foster, Bhajan Hunjan, Azraa Motala and Raksha Patel.


Download Standing Ground Press Release here:
2024-08-27 Standing Ground Press Release.pdf

Part of Totally Thames Festival 2024.

Standing Ground is curated by Trevor Burgess and Raksha Patel.

Trevor Burgess (b.1963) is an artist and curator based in London and Spain, exhibiting internationally including solo exhibitions in UK, Spain and Switzerland. His work has won prizes and awards in Germany, USA and UK. For over 20 years he has been making paintings derived from his observation of the contemporary multicultural urban landscape. www.trevorburgess.co.uk

Raksha Patel (b.1972, Leicester, UK) studied MFA Painting at The Slade School of Art (1998). Recent exhibitions: A Radical Decade, Rochdale Art Gallery in the 1980s, Touchstones Rochdale (2023), Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize (2023), Goddesses of Kings Cross, CSM Museum & Study Collection Gallery (2022). She is a Senior Lecturer on BA Painting, Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London. rakshapatel.co.uk

Madi Acharya-Baskerville is a London based South Asian artist. She graduated with an MA in Fine Art at University of Wales Institute, Cardiff. She won the First Plinth Public Art Award, Royal Society of Sculptors (2023) and her first Public Art Commission ‘The Double Act’, was displayed at the Royal Society of Sculptors, Sculpture Terrace and is currently on show at The Art House, Wakefield. www.madiacharya-baskerville.org

London based artist Said Adrus has been active since the 80's. He works in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, and Uganda. His practice expresses a range of media, addressing issues of displacement, estrangement and racism - tensions with which he has been personally confronted since a child. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Said_Adrus

Frank Bowling is an artist based in London, who has spent over six decades expanding the possibilities of paint. Known as one of the foremost British artists of his generation, major solo shows include Frank Bowling’s Americas at Museum of Fine Arts Boston (2022-23), a retrospective at Tate Britain (2019) and the touring exhibition Mappa Mundi (2017-19). frankbowling.com

Jai Chuhan has exhibited internationally including Tate Liverpool, Barbican, London. Solo exhibitions: Champ Lacombe, Biarritz, France (2024); Qrystal Partners, London (2023); Paris Internationale with Champ Lacombe, Paris (2023) Hayward Gallery Touring Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood (2024-25). Her works are the Tate and the Arts Council Collection. https://www.jaichuhan.co.uk

Jasmir Creed is a practice-led PhD researcher at the Slade School of Fine Art. Solo exhibitions of her work include Utopolis at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery, Warrington, 2023; Dystopolis at Victoria Gallery & Museum, Liverpool, 2018; and Urban Forest at Delta House Studios, London, 2017 jcreed1.wixsite.com

Kimathi Donkor lives and works in London, where he is the Reader in Contemporary Painting and Black Art at University of the Arts London. Exhibitions include The 15th Sharjah Biennial, 2023; The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure at the National Portrait Gallery, London (2024); Soulscapes, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London (2024); Kimathi Donkor: Black History Painting at Niru Ratnam Gallery, London (2024). www.kimathidonkor.net

Grant Foster is a London based artist who completed an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2012. He was a Prize-winner in John Moores 25, 2008, and in 2019 held the Randall Chair at Alfred University New York and was Fellow in Contemporary Art with The British School at Rome. grantfoster.org

Bruno Grad is an artist and writer based in Margate. He studied English Literature at King’s College, University of Cambridge (2009). Most recent exhibition: People of the Body, 4 Garden Walk Gallery (2024) @diasporistshopfronts

Bhajan Hunjan trained as painter and printmaker. Alongside her studio practice she works as an Artist Educator and on site-specific Public Art commissions, created mostly through community consultation and participation that engage people. www.bhajanhunjan.com

Azraa Motala studied BA Fine Art at University of Central Lancashire and MA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts (2018) She was awarded the Hoyland scholarship, and has exhibited at Tate Britain, Manchester Museum, Saatchi Gallery, British Textile Biennial, Touchstones Rochdale, Artichoke Trust. She is undertaking a Catalyst Creative Residency in Cumbria. www.azraamotala.com




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