Nathan Eastwood
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(b. 1972 in Barrow-in-Furness, England) lives and works in London.
2008 - 09 MA Fine Art, Byam Shaw School of Fine Art, (CSM), London, UK
2001 - 05 BA (Hons) Fine Art, Kent Institute of Art & Design, Canterbury, UK - (First Class)
Solo Exhibitions
2017
My England, Sid Motion Gallery, London
2016
Laptop & Chips, SE9 Container Gallery, London
2014
Work/Recreation/Freedom, Nunnery Gallery, London
Domestic Realism, (CBP) Crypt St Marylebone Parish Church, London
Selected Group Exhibitions
2019
Made in Britain: 82 Painters of the 21st Century, the National Museum in Gdańsk Poland
Curated by, Robert Priseman, Anna McNay, Małgorzata Taraszkiewicz-Zwolicka and Małgorzata Ruszkowska-Macur
2018
Contemporary Masters from Britain, Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Tianjin, China,
80 works of art selected from the Priseman Seabrook Collection of 21st Century British Painting
1 December 2017 – 10 January
2017
The Long Count, Von Goetz Art (group show curated by Von Goetz Art, Mayfair, London
Contemporary Masters from Britain, Jiangsu Art Museum, Nanjing, China Contemporary Masters from Britain 80 works of art selected from the Priseman Seabrook Collection of 21st Century British Painting, 29th – 16th November
Contemporary Masters from Britain, Jiangsu Art Museum, Nanjing China, 80 works of art selected from the Priseman Seabrook Collection of 21st Century British Painting, 24th – 31st October
Contemporary Masters from Britain, Jiangsu Arts and Crafts Museum Artall, Nanjing China 80 works of art selected from the Priseman Seabrook Collection of 21st Century British Painting, 10th – 23rd October
Contemporary Masters from Britain, The Yantai Art Museum Yantai China, 80 works of art selected from the Priseman Seabrook Collection of 21st Century British Painting, 7th July - 3rd August
Silence Un-scene, Arthouse Lewisham, London
Contemporary Masters from the East of England, 36 works drawn from the collection of 21st Century British Painting, focusing on the East of England, The Cut Halesworth Suffolk, 25th April - 27th May
2016
Aviary, Transition Gallery, London, UK
Selected Works from the Priseman Seabrook Collection, The Minories, Colchester, UK
2015
London Painting Survey, Blackhorse Lane, Studios, London, UK
Anti-Social Realism, Charlie Smith Gallery, London, UK
Documentary Realism: Painting in the Digital Age, the Crypt at St Marylebone, London< UK
Present Tense: The Swindon Collection, Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, UK
2014
@PaintBritain, Ipswich Museum
Priseman-Seabrook Collection, Huddersfield Art Gallery, UK
Towards a New Socio-Painting, Transition Gallery, London, UK
Prize winner: The East London Painting Prize, The Nunnery Gallery, Bow Road, London, UK
Signal Over Noise / Don’t Split the Focus, Walthamstow E17, London UK
This Year’s Model, Studio1.1′s, Shoreditch, London, E2, UK
2013
Contemporary British Painting, the Crypt at St Marylebone, London
Zeitgeist Arts Projects, ASC Studios, London (On-line catalogue)
Threadneedle Prize, (finalist) Mall Galleries, London (On-line catalogue)
Royal Academy Summer Show, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
2012
John Moores Painting Prize, (finalist) Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK
Occupied Realism, Portman Gallery, E2 0PX London
2011
Platform C’s Emergent Art Show, Vyner Street Gallery, Vyner Street, London
2010
Artworks Open 2010, Barbican Arts Group Trust, E17, London
2009
17 Ingredients Measures of Autonomy, Studio One, London
Awards/Prizes
2014 East London Painting Prize - inaugural winner
2013 The Threadneedle Prize - shortlisted
2012 John Moores Painting Prize – shortlisted
2008 South Square Trust Scholarship, Masters Scholarship at Byam Shaw School of Art
2005 Award: Outstanding Achievement in Fine Art, BA (Hons) Fine Art
Collections
Yale Centre for British Art
Zabludowicz Collection, London
Goldhill Family, London
The Priseman-Sea Brook Collection
Swindon Museum and Art Gallery
Talks
2017 Artists’ Talk: Silence Un-scene, chaired by Nicholas Balmfort, speakers: Nathan Eastwood | Hannah Brown | Marguerite Horner | Rob Reed, Arthouse Lewisham, London
2017 Artist Talk: in conversation with Matt Price (an independent art publisher, editor and curator) My England, Sid Motion Gallery, London
2017 Artist Talk: chaired by Matthew Krishanu, Contemporary British Painting Friends Programme, My England, Sid Motion Gallery, London
2014 Artist Talk: in conversation with Matt Price (an independent art publisher, editor and curator), Work/Recreation/Freedom, The Nunnery Gallery, Bow Road, London, UK
2014 Artists’ Talk: Towards a New Socio-Painting chaired by Alex Michon, Speakers: Nathan Eastwood, Paul O ‘Kane, George Vasey, David Tucker, Transition Gallery, London
2014 Artists’ Talk: Showing Painting, with Katrina Blannin, Nathan Eastwood, Stephanie Moran, The Nunnery, London
2009 Artists’ Talk: Who is Art For? Chaired by Brian Putnam, Speakers: Mick Finch | Andrew McGettigan | Nick Lambrianou | Adam Knight, Byam, Shaw School of Art (CSM) London,
PUBLICATIONS
2019 Made in Britain, group exhibition catalogue, National Museum, Gdansk, Poland
2018 The Anomie Review of Contemporary British Painting, Edited by Matt Price, Published by Anomie
2017 Contemporary Masters from the East of England (Priseman-Seabrook Collection group exhibition catalogue), The Cut,
2017 The Yantai Art Museum, Yantai, China Contemporary Masters from Britain 80 works of art selected from the Priseman Seabrook Collection of 21st Century British Painting
2015 Contemporary Art’s Hottest Talent, The Angel resident magazine, January 2015, Issue 28
2015 The Angel resident magazine
2014 Work/Recreation/Freedom, The Nunnery (exhibition catalogue)
2014 Priseman-Seabrook Collection of 21st Century British Painting, ISBN 1514186772
2014 Domestic Realism, Garageland,17: Society, Transition Gallery, London (UK)
2014 East London Painting Prize (exhibition catalogue)
2012 John Moores Painting Prize (exhibition catalogue)
Eastwood abandoned the non-representational minimal monochromatic painted object and dedicated himself to producing a meticulous application of enamel paint on board within a realist schema which started in 2011 with a small painting titled Nook; a painted motif that depicts the artist sitting at the bottom of his stairs at home. Since then he has produced dozens of paintings with the same loaded melancholic atmosphere for which he is well-known; for example: Dave 2013, Time Passing, 2013 Rock & Roll 2015, There Goes my Weekend, 2017 and Food Bank, 2016. Eastwood’s art symbiotically brings, together the language of social realism/Kitchen Sink Aesthetics with the photo-real schema.
Eastwood’s breakthrough showing of a moderate sized painting ‘Nico’s Cafe’ exhibited in the East London Painting Prize 2014 won him (Inaugural winner) the main cash prize and a solo exhibition at the Nunnery Gallery. The winning painting went on to be owned by the Goldhill family. This solo exhibition (Work/Recreation/Freedom) hosted at the Nunnery Gallery allowed Eastwood an opportunity in building a new body of work within this supportive environment.
“Eastwood draws inspiration from the Kitchen Sink Painters of the 1950s – his minimal, monochromatic enamel paintings aim to reflect his social realities and are allegories for our everyday existence. Eastwood depicts banal moments of day to day life in meticulous detail, allowing us to question our social conditions, and the larger implications of our social standing.” Solo exhibition: My England
Eastwood states:
“the enamel paint is very thin and requires many layers in order to build up any real surface depth and a sense of physicality. The paint dries too quickly, so in order to slow this down I use a little oil medium to extend and keep the enamel wet and negate the drying time. These painted works that I make reveal loose brushwork, marks and the surface is riddled with imperfections, such as trapped dust and hair. This series of imperfections inherent within the application and inability to make the painting simulate the photographic print positions my paintings as not being, photo real; this is the over-all intention I am aiming for.”
Eastwood has often stated and believes good a realist painting should transmit more than simple hand skills, (mimetic intelligence) but instead a realist painting should convey the essence of human existence; their existential dialectical social relations.
Here he refers to Georg Lukacs for his conceptual endorsement:
“The inner truth of the works of the great realists’ rests on the fact that they arise from life itself, that their artistic characteristics are reflections of the social structures of the life lived by the artist himself”
Statement
Biography