Currently at The Levinsky Gallery in Plymouth (24 Jan–28 Mar 2020), Slow Painting features 19 artists whose work spans a myriad of styles and applications, from figuration to abstraction. The connecting thread is that their paintings that take their time, and invite the viewer to do the same.
Art has reacted, like everything else, to digital technology, both on the level of making and reception. The speed at which art is consumed has been transformed by shorter attention spans and the desire to make images that ‘pop’ on smartphone and computer screens. Yet painting has historically been both created and received patiently, offering a space of pause, contemplation and gradual unfurling. Slow Painting offers a counterbalance to an increasingly accelerating world, comprising works that illustrate the role of painting as a rewarding repository of time.
Curated by the writer and critic Martin Herbert, Slow Painting opened at Leeds Art Gallery (24 Oct 2019–12 Jan 2020). It travels to The Levinsky Gallery in Plymouth (24 Jan – 28 Mar 2020), then The Edge, University of Bath and Bath Spa School of Art and Design (10 April–6 June 2020) and Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, and Thurso Art Gallery (24 July–3 October 2020).
Read a review of the exhibition in Frieze
Image: Varda Caivano, Untitled, 2011
Image courtesy Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London