Stuart Layton
Statement
Theoretically underpinned within simulation and the hyper real, Layton’s work explores the passing down of history, folklore & childhood recollections and analysis of to what extent history is actually fabricated to suit the political agenda of the day. It is often assumed that history is a straightforward representation of past events, but Layton’s work makes cause for the invocation of historian E H Carr’s maxim that: ‘There is no such thing as history, only historians.’ In a similar vein, Leopold von Ranke taught that to articulate the past historically does not mean to recognise it ‘the way it was’.
In short, history, like memory is constructed and reconstructed in relation to the perspectives and prejudices of the individual. The common theme in all of Layton’s film montages is his critical examination of memory and editorial choice in the formation of political and personal histories and personally political histories. He often considers the ‘just-past’ too, in order to scrutinise the much-contested site of ‘contemporary history.
Biography
Selected Solo Exhibitions: You Never Wash Up After Yourself & Other Observations, Three Gallery, BPN Architects Birmingham, April 14 You’ll Never Work in this Town Again, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, 2013
Selected Group Exhibitions: Now & After – International Video Art Festival, Moscow, Russia, April 2014 New Art West Midlands, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery & Grand Union. February 2013
Selected Awards: The Lucy Halford Bursary. October 2014 The Elmley Foundation Scholarship. 2013/15 The Bransford Trust Scholarship, 2013/15. New Art West Midlands Runner Up 2013
Teaching: Visiting Lecturer in Fine Art, HE Diploma, Royal Leamington Spa College. (Current)
News
The artists was co-curator Light/Matter, a group exhibition of international artists whose work spans the divide between Moving Image and Painting. Cookhouse Gallery, Chelsea College of Art & Design, 12-17 January 2015.
He is in his final year on the MA Painting/Moving Image at Royal College of Art.
Sales
The artists has the following works for sale:
Video works available in collectors boxes, limited editions of 5. Small original paintings. Prints (Editions of 25).
Contact
Nearly Lost You (2013) Oil and acetate on panel.Untitled Work In Progress, (2014, Sequence 04).
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