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Auspicious Ribbon, oil on MDF© Pip Dickens
Pip Dickens is a painter concerned with visual
perception, in particular, examining and
challenging theories and methodologies of
light and movement within the second dimension.
Concepts of illusion and double meaning are
recurring themes - The notion that we may
receive two contrasting visual (or intellectual)
responses to a single stimulant. She is interested
in playing with ideas of extremes and visual
confusion - a kind of "terrible beauty".
Her painting methodology is determined by
the subject matter and often juxtaposes conventional
painting techniques with innovative methods
to create unusual surfaces, layers and textures.
Depth and surface contrasts are particularly
important in her work.
Her work draws upon many sources from natural
phenomena to the darker elements of phantasmagoria,
from opacity to transparency, from rhythms
within music to pattern structures in nature,
from cinematic devices to literary sources.
Although common themes connect individual
investigations, she dispels a singular stylistic
approach in preference for innovating and
testing new methodologies as a direct response
to the subject matter
Background
Pip Dickens has a Masters in Fine Art from
The Slade School of Art (UCL, London) graduating
in 2000.
She studied her BA at Leeds Metropolitan
University where she has been both a Visiting
Lecturer and, from 2006 - 2008, a part-time
lecturer on the BA (Hons) Fine Art degree
course. She has also promoted visual and
performance art whilst Marketing Officer
at Leeds Metropolitan University Gallery
& Theatre prior to embarking on her MFA.
She was a part-time lecturer at Hull College
of Art & Design and a Visiting Lecturer
at Leeds College of Art & Design and
the University of Lincoln.
She regularly shows her work in London and
has also exhibited in San Francisco at The
Business Arts Council, at San Francisco Marina
and with Alina Sandhu's private gallery Tangent
Contemporary Art.
Prior to studying art (1978-1985) she worked
extensively across the Middle East from the
relatively young age of seventeen until her
mid-twenties. She perceives this period of
her life as critical to her outlook as an
artist.
Her first London solo show was with Cassian
De Vere Cole at his Notting Hill gallery
apartment in 2000. After the closure of his
gallery she had numerous group and solo shows
in London including ‘Bittersweet’ at Danielle
Arnaud. ‘Oil and Stone’ at East 73rd Gallery
and several exhibitions with Mayfair gallery,
Sarah Myerscough Fine Art.
She was shortlisted for the NatWest Art Prize
in 1997 and is the recipient of the Jeremy
Cubitt Prize (Slade School of Fine Art).
She also won the Edna Lumb Art Travel Prize
in 1995 where she travelled to Iceland. She
was a nominee for the Jerwood Contemporary
Painters 2009 and shortlisted for the Celeste
Painting Prize 2009. Her recent, substantial,
solo exhibition 'Toward the Light: Pip Dickens'
at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford
will tour selected venues in the UK until
end 2012. In 2010-2011 she was the Leverhulme
Trust Award Artist in Residence at the University
of Huddersfield, Department of Music.
In addition to her painting practice she
has worked with Ken Shuttleworth’s architectural
practice, Make Architects, on a major integral
public art commission for a prestigious development
in London.
Her work has been purchased by a variety
of private collectors including architects,
commercial, leisure and financial institutions.
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