These are works where the entire experience of the landscape is felt and formed
In Gallery 1 we are delighted to present the first solo exhibition in London of works by James Ferguson-Rose. In Ferguson-Rose’s paintings the sense of immersion is inescapable – these are works where the entire experience of the landscape is felt and formed, and latterly described in dense and often overlaying planes of colour, texture and script. The works become palimpsests – each painting may have five or six preliminary variants below its final surface – that describe the changing conditions of light, weather, sound and ‘feel’ of the landscape through which Ferguson-Rose has travelled, but before returning to the studio to re-form the four dimensional experience into a solid state.
The process begins with a series of panoramic drawings which are completed during long, carefully planned hikes – in the case of the works in this exhibition through Northumberland and the South Downs. The drawings become maps of both the physical features of the landscape and the physical experience of being within it at changing points through the day. These ‘maps’ are then laid out in the studio and each can form the initial basis for one or more paintings.
In the English landscape Ferguson-Rose finds a perfect combination of style and subject, as his own tendency towards abstraction is perfectly mirrored in rolling countryside that is almost invariably divided into smaller, individual planes. Hedgerows, stone walls, streams and roads each creating natural (or at least unplanned in an aesthetic sense) cubism-esque forms. Occasional buildings find their way into the works – though only the most monumental stay in any recognisable shape as the paintings are walks through time and so most structures are only seen and passed fleetingly. An exception within this exhibition would be the colossal wind turbines in The Progressive Players at Kirkheaton – which stand dominating the skyline from every vantage point of the journey.
Stylistically Ferguson-Rose draws on the particularly British modernist school that arose from the St Ives group from the 1950s onwards – visionary painters such as Peter Lanyon, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and Sandra Blow. Prunella Clough is also cited as a major influence, and in some works there are echos of Clough’s strident style, and indeed Blow’s energetic collaging of fabric and canvas layers. The voice that emerges here though is exhiliratingly distinctive, with each vibrant composition containing a journey within itself.
Notes on the artist:
James Ferguson-Rose was born in 1989 and lives and works in London. He completed his MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in the summer of 2023. His work is held in private collections internationally, and has been exhibited across the UK - including at the Laing Gallery, Newcastle; Cedric Bardawil, London; OHSH Projects, London; The Newbridge Project, Newcastle and The Manchester Contemporary.