Andy Harper

United Kingdom artist, Andy Harper, received his B.A in Fine Art Painting from Brighton Polytechnic in 1993. He continued on to obtain a M.A. degree in Fine Art Painting from the Royal College of Art, London, which he received in 1995, and a M.A in Visual Culture Commendation in 1999 from the Middlesex University, London. Harper has exhibited throughout the world and most recently in solo exhibitions at the Danese/Corey gallery in New York, Morgen Contemporary in Berlin, and Page Gallery in Seoul, as well as a group exhibition at El Segundo Museum of Art in El Segundo.

PROCESS

Harper creates lush patterns and shapes that are liquefied through the use of oil paint and medium. His quick brushwork, scraping, and staining generate visually intricate forms that he is able to produce by manipulating paint in its liquid state. Harper mixes his paint with medium that keeps it malleable throughout his process. It is important for his process that the paint stays susceptible to his brush. This means he needs to continuously work on a painting, over the range of at most a week, till it is finished. This creates the same fluidity in his finishing process as in his application.

Harper has employed non-traditional shapes in his painting, such as large standing and spherical works. He does not consider these works as sculptural but rather looks at them as transforming canvases that changes to fit his painting concepts.

RESIDENCY

Shifting his practice from the West Coast of England to the West Coast of the United States, Andy Harper plans to make a series of large-scale paintings that continue with his current investigation of patterns and forms mixed with his observations of San Diego County.