Sporting Life Exhibition

20 Jul 2010

 On 7 August  2010, Halcyon Gallery, 24 Bruton Street, London W1 will open an exhibition entitled Sporting Life, which brings together an important body of contemporary sporting art.  Around 12 paintings will be on show by Andrew Ellis and 6 sculptures by Simon Gudgeon.

Depictions of animals predate recorded history and sporting art can be traced right back to prehistoric cave paintings.  It was not until the 18th century, however, that the genre truly flourished.  George Stubbs was a pioneer in the subject becoming the leading horse artist of his age, celebrating English country life in his portraits of jockeys, grooms, horses, dogs and wild animals.

Birds are the starting point for painter Andrew Ellis, and they dominate his canvases. Gliding on air currents far above the fields or perched alert against striated cliffs, they are depicted with anatomical perfection. Ellis is a trained falconer and active in countryside management; affinity for his subjects gives his paintings an authority that has been recognised in commissions for scholarly publications, including the forthcoming book Peregrines of the World.

Simon Gudgeon, who has been called the ‘stalking sculptor’, is an artist with a passion for observing creatures in the wild and working for their conservation. Both game shooting and stalking equip him with an enviable knowledge of the subjects he sculpts: dramatic bronzes of woodcock and salmon, roe deer and partridge. Catching grouse breaking cover or otters chasing fish, he captures motion in flowing, abstracted forms with contemporary grace and power.

Both artists have a passion for wildlife and provide a window through which we can perceive something of its beauty.

PDF Link: Sporting Life Press Release

For all press enquiries, contact Niki Gifford