Trevor Burgess
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Dissatisfied with art traditions that depict urban environments as alienating, I have been making paintings inspired by the diversity of cultural expression around my home and studio in London for 25 years. My work has an international outlook, responding to increased movement of peoples in our century, including paintings of markets and street life in Latin America, India, Europe and Morocco. If the subject of my work is public space, the paintings are also grounded in my personal experience and memories, and open to the personal intimacy and suggestiveness of paint as a medium.
Stacks and Wrap-ups A series of large-scale paintings of shuttered stalls and goods under wraps in markets. With aesthetic precedents in Christo & Jeanne Claude’s wrapped objects, Arte Povera sculpture and the found object, these paintings evoke contemporary resonances with pandemic lockdowns and the global trade crisis.
The Market Paintings are an ongoing series of paintings of markets around the world, drawing on experience of travelling in Latin America, Europe and India.
In Deptford. Since moving to Deptford, South East London, in 2007, I have continued to make paintings of the local area.
Inverse Colour Paintings. Exploring the impact of inverting colour on our senses in relation to how we see and interpret the world, initially in response to the crises of Brexit, and later the pandemic lockdown.
A Place to Live is a series of over 60 paintings of homes in London, inspired by Estate Agent property adverts.
Granary Square. In 2015 I undertook a private commission for for a triptych painting of Granary Square, the main public space at the new King's Cross development in London, which generated a series of studies and related drawings and paintings.
Urban people. Since arriving in London at the turn of the century I have been making paintings of my immediate surroundings – streets, markets and public places. I set out in these pictures to paint people going about their ordinary lives in the city.
Wholesale Fruit and Vegetables. "Wholesale" was a site-specific exhibition which I took part in in Norwich in 1996 in a disused warehouse which had previously been occupied by a fruit and vegetable wholesalers. I filled what had been the cold-store with a series of 18 panels depicting fruit and vegetables. The series was later shown at Galerie W-O-S in Zurich in 2023.
Back Stories. An exhibition at the Anna Lovely Gallery in 2023, marking my 60th birthday, looking back at early paintings, starting with landscapes done when I was at school. Accompanied by a series of youtube video essays “People coming out of the paint” by Ambreen Hamid.
Curation
I also curate exhibitions as an artist-curator, collaborating with and exploring the practice of painters in a social context.
Standing Ground - re-thinking the painted British landscape, co-curated with Raksha Patel. Thames-Side Galleries, London, September 2024. 40pp. catalogue supported by British Art Network
Where We Live. Five artists whose work explores the social landscape of England. Opened at Alan Baxter Gallery, London in autumn 2021 and toured to Millennium Gallery, Sheffield Museums and Angear Visitor Centre, University of Nottingham in 2022. 36pp. catalogue supported by Contemporary British Painting.
That Island Feeling, co-curated with Madi Acharya-Baskerville at Terrace Gallery, London in 2022
This instead of That, co-curated with artist Alexandra Baraitser at ArtHouse1, London in 2019, explored how artists respond to each others' work. 32pp catalogue.
Inner and Outer Worlds was co-curated with artist Marguerite Horner at Bermondsey Project Space, London in 2018.
IN THE CITY began at Lion and Lamb Gallery London, in 2014 as an exhibition of painters whose work reflects aspects of the contemporary city on four continents, and toured to East Gallery, Norwich University of the Arts and University of Greenwich Galleries in 2018. 16pp catalogue.
