Trevor Burgess
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 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 declining global trade.
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. In response to the crises of Brexit, and later the pandemic lockdown, I experimented with inverting the colour in my paintings.
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.
Curation
I also curate exhibitions as an artist-curator, collaborating with and exploring the practice of painters in a social context.
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
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.
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.
