AUSTIN / DESMOND FINE ART
JULIAN PERRY:
An Extraordinary Prospect
PRESS RELEASE July 2010
Perry’s response has been to make paintings that
conflate two time periods (before and after the cliffs
erosion). WWII Pill boxes, houses and trees float in
the space they once occupied prior to the loss of the
land upon which they stood.
Finding poignant
significance in the natural and man-made environment
is a recurring theme throughout Perry’s work. Here his
gaze has shifted to the English Coastline, creating
powerful metaphors of vulnerability and loss through
these unique depictions of threatened landscapes.
Julian Perry (b.1960) lives and works in East London
and has participated in over two hundred group
exhibitions, both in the UK and internationally. The
artist has received several major awards including Arts
Council England and British Council.
Perry’s works
are held in many public and private collections
including The Museum of London, Guildhall Art
Gallery and Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery.
The Coastal Erosion Paintings
13 October – 12 November 2010
Private View: 12 October 6.30 - 8.30 pm
This Autumn’s exhibition programme at Austin / Desmond
Fine Art will feature the exhibition: An Extraordinary
Prospect - a three year study of English coastal erosion,
bringing together thirty new works by contemporary artist
Julian Perry.
Following his highly acclaimed 2007 exhibition A Common
Treasury, The Sheds Lost to the Olympiad’ this is to be
Julian Perry’s seventh solo show at the gallery.
Perry’s paintings are enduring recordings of the changing
world.
Celebrated for their extraordinary fidelity and
powerful imagery, his work reflects complex political,
social and environmental issues.
An Extraordinary Prospect engages with one of the
strangest and most profound phenomenon to affect a
landscape: the disappearance of the earth. The exhibition
title references the 18th century concept of the sublime (in
which beauty and dread are conceived as two sides of the
same coin) whilst also hinting at an uncertain future.
Appropriately the Greek derivation of Sublime is ‘to look
up’, a defining characteristic of many of these dramatic
works.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of these paintings is the
floating of their subjects in space.
Perry: I needed a way of conveying the extraordinary
sight of land dissolving into nothingness; the gradual
disappearance of the geological bed from beneath a
landscape’s features. This process has no equal in the
normal run of our lives, earthquakes are more deadly but
erosion is more profound.
AUSTIN / DESMOND FINE ART
Pied Bull Yard
68/69 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3BN
www.austindesmond.com
The forthcoming exhibition offers the opportunity to
see Perry’s latest body of work and will feature more
than twenty five large scale paintings alongside small
studies and works on paper.
A fully illustrated catalogue will be available with essay
by Professor Paul Gough and text by Will Self.
Works are available for sale upon receipt of catalogue.
For more information and images please contact:
Evie Howard or Sethy Alamgir +44 (0)207 242 4443
e.howard@austindesmond.com
s.alamgir@austindesmond.com
Image: Caravan and Sea Mist II, 2010, oil on panel
(Further images available on the following page)
T: +44(0)20 7242 4443
F: +44(0)20 7404 4480
gallery@austindesmond.com
Opening hours: Mon – Fri 10.30 – 17.30 pm
Sat 11.00 – 14.30 pm [during exhibition]
AUSTIN / DESMOND FINE ART
JULIAN PERRY: An Extraordinary Prospect
WORK DETAILS: All works oil on panel
House with Blue Sky, 2010
30 x 25cm
Coastal Tree, 2010
41 x 31.5cm
Cliffs at Happisburgh, 2010
20 x 26cm
For high resolution images please contact
T: +44(0) 207 242 4443
Evie Howard or Sethy Alamgir:
e.howard@austindesmond.com
s.alamgir@austindesmond.com
MODERN BRITISH
INTERNATIONAL
CONTEMPORARY ART
Happisburgh Defences, 2010
26 x 20cm
Skipsea Bungalow, 2010
25.5 x 34.5cm
AUSTIN / DESMOND FINE ART
Pied Bull Yard
68-69 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3BN
www.austindesmond.com