N I C K A R C H E R

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N I C K A R C H E R

LO S T I N PA R A D I S E

16 October –14 November 2014

4 John Islip Street, London SW1P 4PXt: +44 (0) 20 7834 1434 • e: gallery@long-and-ryle.com

www.longandryle.com • tues – fri 10–5:30 sat 11–2

L O N G & R Y L E

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Natural Forces: Observat ions on the Paint ings of Nick Archer

‘It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who

can best manage change’ – Charles Darwin

In the landscape paintings that form Nick Archer’s newest exhibition ‘Lost inParadise’, nature appears to have overpowered mankind. The young childrenthat once dominated his work have disappeared, and in their place nowstand majestic, awe-inspiring, silhouetted trees, stood tall in front of backdropsof candy coloured sky. The absence of the human form is made palpable,partly through the humanising of these trees – painted with such sensitivity that they ooze their own charisma, and partly through the depiction of theoccasional decaying caravan or fairground attraction left abandoned lurkingin the undergrowth.

These paintings seem to be all about playing the game of the survival of the fittest and the competitive relationship between the ego of man and themystique of plants, in particular, trees. Man looks up at the trees and is in awe– at how they grow, how they gain power and how their beauty evolves insurprising ways. Man’s presence is absent in the paintings themselves – it isthe viewer that provides half of the dialogue; Archer wants to tell a storyabout a fictional landscape and places the viewer in his magical world. How do we feel in this landscape?

The tension created by wondrous nature having the potential to overpowerman is an idea that Archer plays with right from each painting’s birth. Hebegins the painting process by allowing the nature of the paint to come into its

aboveMicroscopics oil on canvas 200 x 230 cm

front coverSafe oil on canvas 152 x 152 cm (detail)

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The River oil on canvas 152 x 183 cm

own by pouring vivid combinations of colour on to canvas laid on the floor.He observes the colours bleeding into one another. Once partially dry hethen fixes the canvas to the wall and weaves a montage of images into theoily ground, making sense of the random floods of colour – that is to say, tomake sense of chance, and to observe the behaviour of something outsidehis control and somehow make it his own. The decision making that takescontrol at this point is an expression of the artist’s commitment to aparticular idea or statement which echoes the idea of a coming of age, offinding one’s own identity. In this sense his paintings are adolescent – stillfull of the childish Disney-like bright bright colours of the sky, the fairgroundattractions and Hansel and Gretel cottages, but placed in the mystery of theshadowy Friedrich-esque forest: the trees know something that we don’t. Itis reminiscent of L.P Hartley’s description of the alluring Atropa Belladonnain The Go-Between: ‘It had battened on the heat which had parchedeverything else. Its beauty, of which I was well aware, was too bold for me,too uncompromising in every particular. The sullen heavy purple bellswanted something of me that I could not give; the bold black burnishedberries offered me something that I did not want’. Both this text and thepaintings identify that feeling of awaking to an unknown desire; the allureof something irresistible that is felt alongside the fear of somethingunknown.

Nick Archer’s ‘Lost in Paradise’ works are full of juxtapositions, fromdepicting the real alongside the make-believe to the childish and the wise,and doing so through a combination of chance and control. The tensionthat all these contrasts create ensures that like the Deadly Nightshade,Archer’s work possesses a brooding quietness which seems to store ‘asecret explosive force’.

Lisa Takahashi, 2014

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One Tree oil on canvas 152 x 152 cmFox Glove oil on canvas 97 x 122 cm

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Frost oil on canvas 168 x 132 cm

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Lake Side oil on canvas 183 x 152 cm

Rouge oil on copper 45 x 35 cm

Mort oil on copper 45 x 35 cm

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New Forest oil on canvas 152 x 152 cm

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Ice oil on black sandpaper 120 x 140 cm Monkey Puzzle oil on canvas 168 x 132 cm

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Mound oil on canvas 168 x 129 cm

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Hollow oil on canvas 168 x 132 cm

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NICHOLAS ARCHER b.1963

Education and Qualifications1996-99 Royal Academy Schools, Postgraduate Diploma in painting1982-85 Leeds Polytechnic BA(Hons)1981-82 Mid-Cheshire College Art Foundation Studies

Selected Solo Exhibitions2014 Lost in Paradise, Long & Ryle, London2013 Galerie Hug, Paris2013 Sixty Threadneedle Street, in association with Long & Ryle, London2012 MCL, Metz, France, in association with Louise Alexander Gallery2002,05,09 Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, London2008 Hastings Museum and Art Gallery2005 Royal Overseas League, London and Edinburgh2004 Beauxs Arts, Bath2000 Dean Clough Gallery, Halifax, W. Yorks1999 Long & Ryle, London

Selected Group Exhibitions2014 The eyes are listening, Hastings Museum, East Sussex2014 Gowen Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland2014 Louise Alexander Gallery, Porto Cervo, Italy2014 Art14, Kensington Olympia, with Long & Ryle, London2014 London Original Print Fair, Royal Academy of Art, with Long & Ryle, London2013,14 London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, with Long & Ryle, London2013,14 20/21 British Art Fair, Royal College of Art, with Long & Ryle, London 2012 CEAF Wandsworth Museum, London2012 Meltwater, Eagle Gallery, London2011 Art in Romney Marsh, Installation in Ivychurch2010,11,12,13

Art Paris, Grand Palais, Paris, Arts Festival Porto Cervo, Italy with Louise Alexander Gallery

2009 Threadneedle Art Prize, Mall Galleries, London2008 Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, Painters Hall, London2008 Community in Contemporary Art, Clifford Chance Gallery, Canary Wharf2006 Contemporary British Art, Chelsea Art Gallery, San Francisco 2006 Arts Project Space, London Contemporary Art Fair2005 Sea Voices, Hastings Museum and Art Gallery2004 Arts Futures Exhibition, Contemporary Art Society, London2003 Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Space, London2003 Cast Iron Gallery, New York2000 Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London1998/9, 2002,04

BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London1990,93,99, 2001,02

Hunting Art Prizes, Royal College of Art, London1998,99 The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London1998 Singer & Friedlander Sunday Times Watercolour Competition1997,98 Premiums Exhibition, Sackler Galleries, Royal Academy, London1997 – 2004 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London1994 Whitechapel Open, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London

Career History2013 Part time art tutor, Studio School, Rye, East Sussex2005 Guest speaker on contemporary portraiture, National Portrait Gallery 2001–13 Part-time Lecturer, Heatherley School of Art, Chelsea, London1999 – 2000 Artist in Residence, London Business School, London1999 Visiting Lecturer, Loughborough University, Winchester

School of Art & John Moores, University, Liverpool1997– 98 President of Students Union, RA Schools1994,96 Leeds Metropolitan University, Visiting Lecturer, printmaking1991 Florence Trust, London – 10 Month Residency1990 Cyprus College of Art 1987 St Pauls Gallery, Leeds – Artist in Residence

Awards, Publications & Commissions2012 Commissioned by the Historic Royal Palaces, Tower Bridge, London2008 Winner of ING Fresh Eyes competition2006 Commissioned portraits for the Royal family of Kuwait2002 1st Prize, Hunting Art Prizes2000 Commissioned by ‘The Mill’ film production company 1999 ‘Cyril Sweett Award’, Worshipful Company of Painter Stainers, for

the most outstanding Post-graduate degree show of 19991999 Haite Travel Scholarship1999 ‘London Prize’, Hunting Art Prizes1998 ‘Commended’ BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London1998 Discerning Eye Award for figure painting 1998 Elizabeth Scott-Moore Watercolour Prize, RWS1998 Richard Jack And George Isted Prizes for portraiture, Premiums

Exhibition, Sackler Galleries, RA, London

Bibliography 2009 Melanie Abrams, Galleries Magazine, June 20092003 John Holden, Galleries Magazine, April 20032003 Sue Hubbard, ‘Forever England’, Independent, 8 April 2003 Martin Gayford Catalogue introduction April 20032000 Jay Merrick, ‘Reflections in a darkling eye’, The Independent, 14 March1999 Martin Gayford, ‘Freudian tendency’, Daily Telegraph, 30 June1999 Morgan Falconer. ‘Archer quietly hits the bullseye – yet again’, Highbury

and Islington Express, 8 February1998 William Packer. ‘Changing face of contest', Financial Times, 7 July1998 Martin Gayford. ‘Choose from lively, quirky or accomplished’, Daily Telegraph, 22 July1998 Martin Gayford. ‘Painting in the rain’, Daily Telegraph, 30 September

Selected Public and Corporate Collections‘Peoples Portraits,’ Girton College, Cambridge‘The Mill’ film production company, LondonLondon Business School‘The Hurlingham’ Sports Club, LondonSmith and Williamson Bank, LondonEl – Sabah family collection, KuwaitHistoric Royal Palaces, Tower of LondonRoyal Overseas League, St James’s, London

Photography by Colin Mills

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4 John Islip Street, London SW1P 4PXt: +44 (0) 20 7834 1434 • e: gallery@long-and-ryle.com

www.longandryle.com • tues – fri 10–5:30 sat 11–2

L O N G & R Y L E

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