Andy Slater
 
Biography:
 
Andy Slater (born Scotland, 1979) lives and works in Newcastle and Edinburgh, UK, maintaining a studio practice as a painter. His art work deals with life and love, beauty and myth, through abstraction, pattern and collage. In 2008 he undertook a residency in New York where he completed new large-scale paintings, screenprints and embroideries based on the representations of well-known female figures in history such as Eve (with Adam), Delilah (with Samson) and Salome. In his solo show at the Star and Shadow in Newcastle, Since I Got My iPod Everything is Filmic and Beautiful (May-June 2007) he exhibited paintings drawing upon the Greek myths of Flora, Chloris and Zephyr, amongst other works which made reference to famous landscape paintings from Turner and Monet to Bruegel.
 
In addition to his studio work, Andy has worked in a technical and artistic capacity for venues such as BALTIC and projects including Platform North East, Star Board Home (Newcastle), and The Embassy (Edinburgh) and spent a period of time working at the Venice Biennial (Zenomap Project, Scottish Pavilion, 2003). He collaborated on the creation of the set for the performance-to-camera film 'The Set Up' (Susie Green & Ilana Mitchell) and assisted in making a music video for the UK band 'Field Music'.  Slater has a 1st Class Hons. degree in Fine Art (University of Dundee) and has undertaken research residencies at San Martino de Scale, Sicily, on board the MS. Stubnitz, at The Banff Centre, Canada and at PointB, New York.
 
Education:
 
Born Leith, Scotland, UK, 1979
Leith School of Art 1997 - 1998
University of Dundee 1999 - 2002
Drawing & Painting, B.A. Hons. 1st Class
 
See full exhibition history
 
 
 
 
Artist Statement: My practice ranges from painting to woodwork and includes editioned work (multiples) in a range of media including embroidery and sculpted readymade objects. The main body of my work is centered upon abstract garden-scape painting. My paintings are built from layers of hypnotic pattern and collage. Using a framework of wooden installation, they make reference to architecture and create a rudimentary habitat for both the image and the viewer. These works present a dialogue between abstraction and naturalism, inducing in the viewer a sense of wonder. Dealing with beauty, love and qualities of masculinity and femininity, I take inspiration from Gothic aesthetic and ethos. My paintings draw on the natural and constructed landscapes around me and on existing narratives – from Greek myths such as that of Chloris and Zephyr, to literature by Goethe and D. H. Lawrence. As the idilic environments of the paintings have become populated it is evident that narrative often deals with misogyny. Recent works in painting and embroidery have made reference to Salome, Faust, and the Islamic concept of Fitna. I seek to join the philosophies on life and love found in these tales with an understanding of nature – the details of the petals of flowers as important as what the colour of them might signify. My work has a pop decorative aesthetic but can be read at a number of emotional and intellectual levels – the narrative at play is not always immediately apparent, but feelings of wonder, sadness, loss and love are. Links to reviews online: Generator Member’s Show 2008, review in The Scotsman Art Super Market, MIMA, review by Dott07 There’s A New Kind of Beauty Afoot, One Ton Prop, review by Duncan McLaren http://living.scotsman.com/visual-arts/A-whole-new-world-of.3734310.jphttp://www.dott07.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/9/25/Food-and-Art-make-peace-in-Middlesbroughhttp://www.mapmagazine.co.uk/index.cfm?page=984F1E34-BDF5-2379-71075D0184E53D92&articleid=84shapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2