Artist Statement
Hannah Luxton's paintings are inspired by the 19th Century Romantic notion that a divine power resides within raw nature. Animistic currents run through the works, hinting towards a higher spiritual dimension. Animism intimates the attribution of a living soul to inanimate objects and natural phenomena, and belief in a supernatural power that organizes and animates the material universe. Luxton finds her subjects in her observations of the wilderness - the sun, the moon, stars, mountain tops, waterfalls, craters and ice caverns - condensing and abstracting each referent into an archetypal version of itself.
With an instinctive empathy for Eastern philosophies of the Void, Luxton embraces this space as freedom beyond the confines of the material world. She uses bare linen to give substance and significance to supreme 'nothingness', dissolving the boundary frequently drawn between 'the natural world' that surrounds us on Earth and the 'natural' sphere of the cosmos.
Luxton's studio process is one of contemporary manipulation of traditional, age-old painting methods and materials, in which she has mastered oil paint to appear in a variety of guises. Luxton predominantly employs single pigment oils to demonstrate a colours' character and clarity, and often grinds her own semi precious and rare colours such as Malachite and Lapis Lazuli.
- Hannah Luxton & Sara Jaspan, 2021
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BIOGRAPHY
Hannah Luxton studied her Masters the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL (2010-12) and her BA at Kingston University (2007-09). In 2022 she was elected into the prestigious art collective, The London Group (est. 1913). She is Director and curator of the window gallery, Glass Cloud Gallery, London.
Luxton's work has received support and recognition from the Young Masters Art Prize (2023), Camden Council (2022, 2019), The Arts Council England (2020, 2018), The British Painting Prize (2019), Dentons Art Prize (2019), The Creekside Open (2017), Betty Malcolm Scholarship, UCL (2012), The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers and the Lynn Foundation (2011). Her paintings are held in private collections in the UK, Iceland, the USA and Australia including the Tinie & De Hann collection.
Residencies and expeditions into the wilderness inspire Luxton's work. Notably, in 2019 she embarked on a three month research trip across Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and southern California. In 2018 she completed a research trip to the north of Iceland, after first discovering the country through The Fljotstunga Travel Farm Residency Iceland Award in 2015. Previous to this she was awarded the Trelex Residency, Switzerland (2013).
UK solo and group exhibitions include The Royal Academy (Summer Exhibition 2022, 2021); Brompton Cemetery Chapel (solo, 2021); JGM Gallery (2021); Lumen (2019); ArthouSE1 (2019); Drawing Room Gallery (2018); Blank 100 (solo, 2018); APT Gallery (2017); Lily Brooke Gallery (2016); The Barbican Arts Group Trust (solo, 2016). International appearances include Midnight Gallery, LA USA (2018); Galleria M, Kolkata, India (2015) and the Fljotstunga Travel Farm, Iceland (2015).