George Shaw: The Local
18 Jun 2022 - 04 Sep 2022
In summer 2022, The Box exhibited a new presentation of existing works and new paintings by Turner Prize-nominated artist George Shaw. 'The Local' references his personal experiences and observations of isolation, loss and belonging. Find out more about the exhibition that was on display below.
More info
The exhibition is divided into three chapters, the first being a sequence of paintings that show the Tile Hill area of Coventry where Shaw grew up. It continues with a more intimate collection of works that focus on the passing of his mother and the loss of the family home; a series of new drawings of the interior of the house, paintings of the sky as well as household objects.
The last chapter of the exhibition introduces paintings based on an image of the artist walking along a country road, a path that leads from the old family home to a new journey and destination.
The title of the exhibition, 'The Local' is also a common way of referring to the nearest pub: a place anchored to the community, providing a local reference point and place where experiences are shared.
George Shaw is a Devon-based artist, living and working on the edge of Dartmoor. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2011 and was part of British Art Show 7 which toured nationally to Plymouth, also in 2011.
Visitors will find themselves a long way from the landscapes of Countryfile. Even when, as in one striking work, Shaw wanders into the woods it feels far less like the wild than the spot where the local kids would have gone to neck their first can of cider, to smoke illicit fags, to experiment with sex.
Rachel Campbell-Johnston, The Times
Resources
Get a further insight into George Shaw and his work from the following:
- 'The Local' - this exhibition reviewed in The Times, 2022
- 'The Tribe' - a film about George Shaw by Jared Schiller, 2018
- 'My Back to Nature' - The National Gallery, London by Jared Schiller, 2016
- 'In The Woods' - The National Gallery, London by Jared Schiller, 2016
- Turner Prize 2011 - George Shaw, TateShots by Jared Schiller, 2011
- The Royal College of Art (Painting with a Capital P) - BBC, September 1998
- Front Row, Radio 4 - 5 December 2011
- Private Passions, Radio 3 - 18 September 2016
Read our blog posts about the three different chapters in the exhibition:
Header image credit
George Shaw, The World Turned Upside Down, 2019 (detail)
Humbrol enamel on board 92 x 120 cm
Private Collection Basel / Courtesy: Anthony Wilkinson Gallery, London / Copyright The Artist