Sarah Myerscough Fine Arts

Andy Stewart’s new series, entitled Your Skin is like Vinyl, echoes his use of innovative materials such as gloss paint, glitter and diamond dust to construct rich, painterly surfaces. The title’s musical reference draws similes to our lyrical appreciation of abstract art, where the canvas acts as the artist’s playground for spontaneous and intuitive mark making. His work is abundant with painterly incident; pigment is splashed, thrown, drawn and poured and as such we feel the artist’s physical presence in the work. It is an involved process of layering rhythmic movement, enriched through the physicality of the materials he uses. Recognisable form often appears within Stewart’s painting; a pirouetting figure, an alchemistic landscape or a supernova, but as quickly as it is observed it can dissolve into fluid line or an inky pool of colour. Ultimately, it is the variety of medium that creates palpab le and tactile surfaces, which spill out and envelope the viewer, while they journey through a spectacular yet meditative landscape of paint, colour and texture.

Read the Independent’s Review here

The artist graduated from Gloucester College of Art and Design with a BA Hons in 1985. He has since exhibited in numerous shows and worked on a variety of collaborations, thereby establishing a substantial following for his work. Stewart has had numerous shows in London at The Curwen Gallery, Eagle Gallery, Gallery Fine, and Sarah Myerscough Fine Art. In 2002 he was shortlisted for the John Moore’s painting prize and in 2003 he was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Show. Participation in art fairs include, The Contemporary Art Society Market at the Royal Festival Hall in 1994, 1995 and 1996; The London Art Fair from 2005 until 2010; The Toronto Art Fair 2006, 2007 and 2008 and International shows at the Cast Iron Gallery, New York; White8 Gallery and Gallery Wahrsteiner, Austria; The Cultural Institute, Vienna; San Francesco Del Vigna, Venice; a nd Museum of Modern Art, Passau. He was also part of the ‘Celebrating Mozart’ exhibition which took his work to Havana, Seoul, Bogota and Caracas as well as the House of Parliament, Vienna, Houses of Parliament, London and at the Salzburg Festival at the Television Centre, Austria. Another touring group exhibition has taken his work to the European Parliament, Brussels. In 1986 the Central Electricity Generating Board commissioned a mural mosaic and later commissions have taken him to Austria, where he now works for part of the year on collaborative projects with fellow artists Ernst and Eleonor Freidrich. Stewart is included in many public and corporate collections around the world; Egon Zehnder International; Hammerson; Colliers CRE in London, Glasgow and Manchester; the Town Museum, Hall and Landes Museum,Tyrol, both in Austria, and private collections in London, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Italy, Austria, USA and France including that of the Duke and Duchess of Westmins ter and Franz Fischler, The ex-Agricultural Minister for European Union (collaborative work).