Barnaby Hosking

Since graduating from London’s Royal College of Art, Hosking has created an impressive body of work that revisits many of the central themes explored by cultural movements such as Romanticism and Minimalism. Ideas taken from notions around that of artistic creation, escapism, desire, beauty, the sublime, fetishism elegantly blend together to negate the traditional tension between object and process, content and ultra-formalist surfaces devoid of all meaning. His video installations frequently present the image of an artist at work whose captured actions are shown alongside objects or paintings on black velvet, the latter being the product of apparently absurd endeavours like that of painting in total darkness or in freezing temperatures. For instance, in Night Painting (Tarn Hows), 2003, the artist is shown painting in total darkness, filmed in the heart of England’s Lake District. The exploration of the relationship between artist and nature inspires Snow Painting Once Removed (2005). Created off the coast of Norway, this large installation documents the process of painting a snow-covered landscape en plein air. It epitomises the artist’s struggle to capture a scene, but also the status of an artwork itself. A white monochrome painting and black mirror hang opposite the video projection. The result is a crafted balance between the process and finished object. Blackness is an important element in Hosking’s work. In 2006 Art Basel Statements Hosking presented Black Flood, a length of black carpet upon which was projected a video of an ambiguous black liquid rising slowly to fill the whole frame. Here blackness is defined as the visual impression experienced when no visible light reaches the eye. It can either have a soothing and absorbing psychological effect, or be threatening and terrifying. Black Flood is the result of the contrast between these two psycho-active elements: the comforting effect of a soft carpet and the slow, encroaching movement of a liquid.

Hosking (b. 1976, Norwich, UK) lives and works in London. In 2009 Hosking presented a solo project at the Royal Academy. This year group shows in London have included ’The Tower of Babel’ at 176 and ’Peeping Tom’ at Vegas Gallery. In 2009 Hosking presented a solo project at the Royal Academy andsite specific work for the ’Cabinets’ series at SE8 (London). Group shows included ’Distant Proximity’ at Kunstmuseum Bonn and Young/Old Masters at Robillant + Voena, London. Exhibitions in 2008 included a solo exhibition at Groeflin Maag Galerie (Zurich) and Max Wigram Gallery. Hosking’s work has previously been shown in the UK and internationally including a solo exhibition at Almine Rech Gallery (Paris, 2007); the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (US, 2006) and participations in: The 2^nd Moscow Biennial (Russia, 2007); ’Imagination Becomes Reality (Part V)’ at the Goetz Collection (Munich) and ZKM (Karlsruhe); the 2006 ’Echigo – Tsumari Art Triennial’ (Japan);’Northern Light’ at The Rubell Family Collection (Miami, 2004);’New Blood’ at The Saatchi Gallery (London, 2004).

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