LINSEED Projects is delighted to present the solo exhibition of British artist Tom Howse, Pigeon Grass Mallard Palace. It is the first show of the artist in China and Asia, presenting a series of new paintings created by the artist from the perspectives of the landscape, species, and human figures, in the introspection and reflection of the current global condition. The exhibition will open on May 29, 2021, at the Jin Mansion, a historic residential building with a hundred years of history, at 549 North Shaanxi Road, Shanghai. The exhibition will be on view till June 17, 2021. Howse’s works display calm, beautiful scenes of interior domesticity alongside vibrant and textural visions of landscapes and the natural world, portraying people, animals and weird yet wonderful plants in an endless range of shapes and sizes. We see wood-grained furniture and windows looking outwards, connecting the two realms. Notably, within these settings, it is never certain which aspects attempt to depict reality or fiction. The scenes are often abnormally calm, jarring the viewer’s capability to determine where reality ends and the fantasy begins. The instances of windows signify a device to connect or escape from one reality to another, allowing the viewers to perceive an image within an image, an alternate plane of reality situated within the paintings. While viewing Howse’s work, it can sometimes feel as though the veil of reality could be drawn back at any moment, leaving fantasy in its place. We see many approaches to other worlds and parallel dimensions in film and literature, science fiction, and science fact. The tropes of these alternate universes often employ the navigation of space and time to visit strange new worlds. However, within Howse’s paintings, we can still encounter these fantasies but through more intimate and private visions. There is a distinctive language to the forms in the works of Howse – the shapes of the plants, the branches of the trees, the arms of the figures, or the bending of a swan’s neck. They all possess a fluency in their drawing; it is a quality that brings together connections and references from a range of different contexts; some of them come from art history, folk and outsider art, and craft traditions such as pottery and quilt making, cave art, and cultural artefacts. Ancient art forms are some of the earliest examples of human expression and help explain our origins and evolution; from cave art of the Neolithic to tapestries and quilts, humankind has always told stories to remember and record and to enquire about the experience of humanity. An essential part of his work is the investigation of human behaviour through an anthropological lens – our needs, emotions, irrationality, beauty, silliness, and vulnerability. We are complex creatures fraught with conflict; we search for meaning and to understand our place, examine our evolutionary journey and our struggles to comprehend our improbable existence. With the current world filled with uncertainties, we explore and seek possibilities against the current through contemplation and retrospection; yet the focus within Howse’s figures is one of joy and optimism. There is a strong sense of tenderness and compassion towards the figures and how they interact, whether toward one another or to the natural world in which they reside. 猫咪睡在窗边的椅子上Puss Sleeping On A Chair By The Window，2020亚麻丙烯 Acrylic on Flax150 x 105 cm 关于艺术家About the artist 汤姆·豪斯1988年生于英国切斯特，2011年毕业于伦敦艺术大学温布尔顿艺术学院，现工作生活于伦敦。豪斯的创作时常游移于现实与幻想之间，对人类学抱持的极大兴趣引申其独特的视角，探索着难以被全面认知的世界中诸如宇宙、自然、地球或是人类的奥秘。人们常常通过传说和神话来解释未知，安抚对未知的恐惧，而豪斯也被这些故事所深深吸引。其作品中的场景往往取材于自然与日常，流畅精准地勾绘出的逻辑世界中却又透露着一丝荒谬，而不失纯真。不同于单点透视所带来的单一世界，豪斯通过平面移动营造多元视点，在画面层次中堆积不同维度，述说着生命与无限宇宙之间的交织。艺术家近期个展包括：“鸽子草地野鸭宫殿”，2021，LINSEED Projects，上海；“仿生月蕨峡谷”，2021，荔枝一号画廊，伦敦；“前寒武纪沼泽爵士”，2019，奥普达画廊，挪威；“后天体土壤”，2017，罗德·巴顿画廊，伦敦；“二手蟾蜍诗歌”，2017，坦尼亚波画廊，慕尼黑；“大叶蚁塔沼泽”，2015，坦尼亚波画廊，慕尼黑。近期主要群展包括：“舞台之惠”，2020，Frestonian画廊，伦敦；“我一定是出现了幻觉”，2019，Ratskeller画廊，柏林；“万花筒”，2019，萨奇画廊，伦敦；“Condo伦敦”，2019，Koppe Astner，伦敦；“约翰·摩尔绘画奖展览”，2018，沃克画廊，利物浦。汤姆·豪斯于2018年获英国约翰·摩尔绘画奖，并曾于2012年和2011年获卡特琳奖与普鲁内拉·克罗奖提名。 Tom Howse was born in 1988 in Chester, UK. He graduated from Wimbledon College of Art in 2011 and currently lives and works in London. Howse’s paintings balance between realism and fantasy. With his unique anthropological perspective, his works explore what the artist describes as the dichotomy between our quest to know and our fallibility to comprehend, explaining the mysteries of the cosmos, the earth, humanity, and the existence of natural phenomena that has bewildered humankind since ancient times. Taking its form in folklore and myths, he is interested in how humans are drawn towards explanations found within these stories and how they are used to soothe the fear of the unknown. Howse’s aesthetics is often based on nature and daily life; the lucid worlds he visualized reveal a touch of absurdity without losing innocence, lending to the experimental and the otherworldly. The perspective in his works is utilized via shifting flat planes, opposing a singular vanishing point that allows for a feeling of moving through a singular world. As we subsequently cross through into a whole new universe at each dimension of the paintings’ existence, Howse’s works trace the interweaving among lives and the infinite universe.His solo exhibitions include: Pigeon Grass Mallard Palace, 2021, LINSEED Projects, Shanghai; Moonwort Gorge Replica, 2021, Lychee One, London; Precambrian Swamp Jazz, 2019, Galleri Opdahl, Norway; Post-Celestial Compost, 2017, Rod Barton Gallery, London; Secondhand Toad Poems, 2017, Tanja Pol Galerie, Munich; Gunnera Bog, 2015, Tanja Pol Galerie, Munich; and his selected group exhibitions include: The Stage More Beholding, 2020, Frestonian Gallery, London; I Must Be Seeing Things, 2019, Ratskeller Galerie, Berlin; Kaleidoscope, 2019, Saatchi Gallery, London; Condo London, 2019, Koppe Astner, London; John Moore’s Painting Prize, 2018, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. In 2018, Tom Howse was one of five artists to receive the John Moore’s Painting Prize and was shortlisted for the Caitlin Prize (2012) and the Prunella Clough Painting Award (2011).
天鹅在屋内的植物旁度过了美好的一夜Swan Enjoys A Night Inside Next To The Plants，2021亚麻丙烯 Acrylic on Flax120 x 100 cm
Jin Mansion was built in 1924. With its Neoclassical and Art Deco architectural style, the building exudes a unique Shanghai-style charm. 2021 autumn, the venue will inaugurate HAO MARKET, a brand-new experience integrating fashion, art, and culture, presenting the story of the place with contemporary designs and concepts of life-style.
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