This Is For You

Ralph Anderson is a Glasgow-born artist working in London. Dedicated to painting, he has developed his style over a 20-year career. Recent career successes have come through exhibiting with JGM Gallery and completing major commissions for Hospital Club, where his work is on viewacross a 3 floor installation, as well as an installation for the Gare du Nord Paris Eurostar BusinessPremiere Lounge with 5 paintings created during his artist residency in 2018.

Born in Glasgow, and raised in Garelochead, Anderson in fact began training as an accountant, before deciding to change course entirely and pursue his dream to be an artist.

With this new show, and in a practice that has moved between abstraction and representation, Anderson cites Katharine Grosse, Kristin Baker and Bernard Frize as key influences in his appli- cation of paint. Largely working on aluminium, Anderson’s paintings acknowledge their envi- ronment; the manner in which they are cut out exposes the wall behind, introducing a dialogue between the painting and its surroundings. This is highlighted further by Anderson giving eachpainting a florescent backing, radiating a coloured glow from behind each work, that directlybrings the gallery walls into play with these fascinating works.

For the last ten years Anderson has made his home in London, working from his studio inStreatham, south east London. His wife Alice Wilson who is also Scottish and a career artist.

Ralph Anderson’s friendship with gallerist Jennifer Guerrini Maraldi began in 2006 when he firstcame to stretch the enormous canvases of the Indigenous Australian art works that Jennifer andher husband Filippo exhibited for clients at their Battersea penthouse apartment. With her keeneye for contemporary art, Jennifer soon recognised that Ralph was an exciting and undiscovered talent. And, so, evolved a continuing conversation around the development of Ralph Anderson’sart practice and over the next few years a friendship that has flourished into a successful workingpartnership.

When Jennifer opened JGM Gallery in Battersea in 2017, Ralph was closely involved in the design for the gallery, and a huge support to Jennifer. Prompted by the creative spirit in the HowieStreet surroundings, Jennifer decided to exhibit British artists alongside the Indigenous Australian rtwork that she specialised in. And Ralph was a natural first choice for her first solo show by a contemporary British artist with a show entitled ‘Lucent Umber Paintiings’ in June 2017.

Through Ralph Anderson, and his wife Alice Wilson, also a career artist and creative director at JGM Gallery – the gallery has quickly gathered momentum as a group of important contemporary artists, writers and curators were attracted to its wonderful space and exhibition schedule from Martin Maloney to the delicate and exciting dialogues that exist between Contemporary Indig-enous Art and Contemporary artists, in exhibitions such as Make Me A Sacrifice and the current exhibition Earthworks.

On seeing Anderson’s new paintings artist Dominic Beattie commented:

The works are direct translations of tiny rapid sharpie doodles. Ralph showed me hundreds of them in his studio. As we looked through them we could agree on which were successful andwhich were not. For such little, effortless looking things to be scrutinised is quite funny, but thesedrawings contain all the content Ralph requires to make his large wall pieces. Through his crafts- manship these drawings would be remade as beautiful permanent art objects. The speed of the doodles conception and creation is in stark contrast to the hard task of realising them large, in perfectly cut and painted aluminium.

Email me here for the address and RSVP to the Summer Cocktails on the 4th June 1-6pm. Can’t wait to see you there, Art is good for the soul.