Carl Randall (born 1975) is a British figurative painter, whose work is based on images of modern Japan and London.
Education
Randall is a graduate of The
Slade School of Fine Art
The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised a ...
London (BA Fine Art),
the
Royal Drawing School
The Royal Drawing School is a not-for-profit educational organisation and registered charity in the London Borough of Hackney in England. It was founded in 2000 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and artist Catherine Goodman as The Prince ...
London (The Drawing Year),
and
Tokyo University of the Arts
or is the most prestigious art school in Japan. Located in Ueno Park, it also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, and Kitasenju and Adachi, Tokyo. The university has trained renowned artists in the fields of painting, scul ...
Japan (MFA & PhD Fine Art).
''Portraits of Modern Japan''
Randall was awarded The BP Travel Award 2012,
for his proposal to walk in the footsteps of the Japanese
ukiyo-e
Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk ta ...
printmaker
Andō Hiroshige
Utagawa Hiroshige (, also ; ja, 歌川 広重 ), born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition.
Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format l ...
, creating paintings of the people and places of contemporary Japan.
His project involved spending time in Japan resulting in a group of 15 paintings exhibited at the
National Portrait Gallery in London as part of The 2013
BP Portrait Award
The BP Portrait Award is an annual portraiture competition held at the National Portrait Gallery in London, England. It is the successor to the John Player Portrait Award. It is the most important portrait prize in the world, and is reputedly ...
exhibition, under the title "In the Footsteps of Hiroshige – The Tokaido Highway and Portraits of Modern Japan".
[In the Footsteps of Hiroshige – The Tokaido Highway and Portraits of Modern Japan – The 2012 BP Portrait Award at The National Portrait Gallery . "Tomorrows World", Artists & Illustrators Magazine, London, August 2013 issue, pages 34–37] The exhibition subsequently toured to The Aberdeen Art Gallery Scotland,
The Wolverhampton Art Gallery England,
and then formed his solo exhibition in Japan 'Portraits from Edo to the Present'
at The Shizuoka City Tokaido Hiroshige Museum, where the paintings were exhibited alongside Hiroshige's original
The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō woodblock prints. In conjunction with these exhibitions, the book ''Carl Randall – Japan Portraits'' was published, illustrating paintings and drawings made in Japan, with a foreword by British author
Desmond Morris
Desmond John Morris FLS ''hon. caus.'' (born 24 January 1928) is an English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter, as well as a popular author in human sociobiology. He is known for his 1967 book ''The Naked Ape'', and for his telev ...
, and an introduction by the late American writer
Donald Richie
Donald Richie (17 April 1924 – 19 February 2013) was an American-born author who wrote about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan, and especially Japanese cinema. Although he considered himself primarily a film historian, Richie also di ...
.
A short documentary, ''Carl Randall – Japan Portraits'' was also made, showing the artist painting and drawing in Japan.
His Japan paintings were also the subject of a 2016 'World Update' interview by the BBC World Service (titled 'Painting the faces in Japan's crowded cities'),
and he was also interviewed by CNN about his Japanese work.
Awards, Scholarships, Residencies, Collections
As well as The BP Travel Award, he also received first prize in the 1998
RWS/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition,
[The 1998 Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition. "Fresh Fields, New Faces", ]The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
, London, 6 September 1998, page 8 he twice received Second prize in The William Coldstream Painting Competition at The Slade School (1996 & 1997),
and was awarded The 2011 Nomura Art Prize by Tokyo University of Arts
(for the top PhD graduate exhibition, with his painting 'Roppongi Nightclub' being bought for the University Museum's collection). Scholarships include
Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation is a United Kingdom-based charity (registered no. 299955) established in 1988 to support closer links between Britain and Japan. It was founded with a benefaction from Daiwa Securities Co Ltd (now known as Daiw ...
and
MEXT
The , also known as MEXT or Monka-shō, is one of the eleven Ministries of Japan that composes part of the executive branch of the Government of Japan. Its goal is to improve the development of Japan in relation with the international communi ...
to continue his career as a painter in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...
, where he lived for 10 years.
He was selected to be the artist in residence at the 2007 Grand Prix Formula 1 Races in Japan,
[ING Fresh Eyes on Formula 1, ]Car and Driver
''Car and Driver'' (''CD'' or ''C/D'') is an American automotive enthusiast magazine. In 2006 its total circulation was 1.23 million. It is owned by Hearst Magazines, who purchased prior owner Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. in 2011. It was f ...
Magazine, Japan, December 2007 and was interviewed about his paintings for the CNN programme 'The Japanese Grand Prix: F1 in Japan'.
He was also invited to be artist in residence in Hiroshima City, to meet and paint portraits of ''
hibakusha
''Hibakusha'' ( or ; ja, 被爆者 or ; "person affected by a bomb" or "person affected by exposure o radioactivity) is a word of Japanese origin generally designating the people affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at th ...
'' (survivors of the atomic bomb), as part of the exhibition ''Hiroshima Art Document''
(the resulting series of portrait drawings now in permanent collection of UCL Art Museum, University College London
). In 2014, his large canvas 'Tokyo Portrait' was bought by
Fondation Carmignac
The Fondation Carmignac is a Paris-based organization that bestows the Carmignac Gestion Photojournalism Awards, which are held yearly. It was established in 2000 by Édouard Carmignac. The organization has a publicly accessible art collection ...
in Paris, joining works in the collection by artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichenstein, Jean-Michel Basquait, Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter.
His paintings are also in
The Royal Collection
The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world.
Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the ...
and The Shizuoka City Tokaido Hiroshige Museum of Art, Japan.
Fine art prints of his paintings are in the collections of
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...
;
National Poetry Library
The National Poetry Library is a free public collection housed at Royal Festival Hall in London's Southbank Centre. Situated on the fifth floor of the Royal Festival Hall, overlooking the river Thames, the library aims to hold all contemporary U ...
at
Southbank Centre
Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge).
It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the Nati ...
;
Zoological Society of London
The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park.
History
On 29 ...
; Channel 4 News Studios; The National Film and Television School; Akram Khan Dance Company; Curtis Brown Group; Aardman Animation, Bristol; Kent University; Hanway Films; Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds; The Comedy Store;
Bar Italia Soho.
Exhibitions
His works have been exhibited at a number of exhibitions and galleries, including the
BP Portrait Award
The BP Portrait Award is an annual portraiture competition held at the National Portrait Gallery in London, England. It is the successor to the John Player Portrait Award. It is the most important portrait prize in the world, and is reputedly ...
s (2002,
2012,
2013
) at The National Portrait Gallery London; the
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the months of June, July, and August. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, s ...
(2003, 2009,
2013,
2019
); The
Royal Society of Portrait Painters
The Royal Society of Portrait Painters is a charity based at Carlton House Terrace, SW1, London that promotes the practice and appreciation of portraiture.
Its Annual Exhibition of portraiture is held at Mall Galleries, and it runs a commissi ...
annual exhibition (2012,
2017,
[Royal Society Portrait Painters Exhibition. ]The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
, London, May 2nd 2017, page 8. 2018,
2020
2022
), The
Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize The Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize is an annual art award, intended to encourage creative representational painting and draughtsmanship. It gives out prizes totalling £25,000. The prize originated in London in 2005, with a collaboration between the Wo ...
(2017,
2018
), ING Discerning Eye 2020,
the
Jerwood Drawing Prize The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize is the United Kingdom's leading award in contemporary drawing.
Initially awarded in 1991 as the Malvern Open Drawing Prize, it became the Cheltenham Open Drawing Competition in 1994, and then the Jerwood Drawing ...
2012,
and 'Small is Beautiful' at
Flowers Gallery
The Flowers Galleries are two galleries in London (on Cork Street in the West End, and in Shoreditch in the East End) and a third in the Chelsea district of New York City. The three galleries represent over 60 artists.
History
The first Flo ...
London (2017,
2018,
2019,
2020,
2021,
2022
). In 2014, he had two solo exhibitions in central London of work inspired by the people and places of Tokyo: 'Tokyo Portraits'
at The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation (exhibition opened by novelist
David Mitchell), and 'Shōzō
��像 at Berloni London.
In the same year, his solo exhibition 'Portraits from Edo to the Present'
was at The Shizuoka City Tokaido Hiroshige Museum of Art in Japan, where his paintings were exhibited alongside Ando Hiroshige's original
The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō woodblock prints (he was also commissioned by the Museum to make a painting for their collection – a contemporary view of Mount Fuji, as depicted in one of Hiroshige's prints
). Other exhibitions in Japan include at Tokyo Art Award,
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Arts,
and a solo exhibition at Fuma Contemporary Tokyo, Bunkyo Art.
Participation in international art fairs include Art Volta, Basel Switzerland;
Art Taipei, Taiwan;
Art International Istanbul,
Art Osaka
and Art Fair Tokyo 2019, Japan.
In 2015, he was commissioned by HRH Prince of Wales to paint a World War Two D-Day Veteran for The Royal Collection, exhibited at The Queens Gallery, Buckingham Palace,
Portsmouth Museum,
and Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, Scotland.
In 2016, his work was exhibited and auctioned at
Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémi ...
New York,
and in 2020 Christie's London.
Earlier in his career, he was included in the 2004 group exhibition 'Being Present' at The Jerwood Gallery London, showcasing eight young UK figurative painters who primarily work from life.
London Portraits
'London Portraits' are a series of 15 paintings made upon Randall's return to the UK, of people who have contributed to their fields in British culture and society.
Each sitter was asked to choose a location in London for the background of their portraits. Participants include newscaster
Jon Snow, actress
Julie Walters
Dame Julia Mary Walters (born 22 February 1950), known professionally as Julie Walters, is an English actress. She is the recipient of four British Academy Television Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, two International Emmy Awards, a B ...
, comedian
Jo Brand, animator
Nick Park
Nicholas Wulstan Park (born 6 December 1958) is a British animator who created ''Wallace and Gromit'', ''Creature Comforts'', ''Chicken Run'', ''Shaun the Sheep'', and '' Early Man''. Park has been nominated for an Academy Award a total of ...
, author/illustrator
Raymond Briggs
Raymond Redvers Briggs (18 January 1934 – 9 August 2022) was an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist and author. Achieving critical and popular success among adults and children, he is best known in Britain for his 1978 story ...
, novelist
David Mitchell, actress
Katie Leung
Katie Leung (born 8 August 1987; ) is a Scottish actress. Initially famous for playing Cho Chang, the titular character's first love interest in the ''Harry Potter'' film series, she is also known for her roles as Caitlyn in the animated ser ...
, illustrator
Dave McKean
David McKean (born 29 December 1963) is an English illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and musician. His work incorporates drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects, digital art, and sculp ...
, poet
Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (born 15 April 1958)Gregory, Andy (2002), ''International Who's Who in Popular Music 2002'', Europa, p. 562. . is a British writer and dub poet. He was included in ''The Times'' list of Britain's top 50 post-wa ...
, movie producer
Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy Jack Thomas, CBE (born 26 July 1949) is a British film producer, founder and chairman of Recorded Picture Company. He produced Bernardo Bertolucci's ''The Last Emperor'', which won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2006 he rece ...
, film-maker
Julien Temple
Julien Temple (born 26 November 1953) is a British film, documentary and music video director. He began his career with short films featuring the Sex Pistols, and has continued with various off-beat projects, including '' The Great Rock 'n' Rol ...
, poet
Simon Armitage
Simon Robert Armitage (born 26 May 1963) is an English poet, playwright, musician and novelist. He was appointed Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds.
He has published over 20 collections of poet ...
, choreographer
Akram Khan, zoologist
Desmond Morris
Desmond John Morris FLS ''hon. caus.'' (born 24 January 1928) is an English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter, as well as a popular author in human sociobiology. He is known for his 1967 book ''The Naked Ape'', and for his telev ...
, actor
Antony Sher
Sir Antony Sher (14 June 1949 – 2 December 2021) was a British actor, writer and theatre director of South African origin. A two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner and a four-time nominee, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982 a ...
and Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company
Gregory Doran
Gregory Doran (born 24 November 1958) is an English director known for his Shakespearean work. ''The Sunday Times'' called him 'one of the great Shakespearians of his generation'.
Doran was artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RS ...
. A short documentary ''Carl Randall – London Portraits'' was made in conjunction with the project, showing Randall meeting and painting the sitters – each explaining their choice of location in London for their portraits.
Prints of this series of paintings were displayed at the print room of The National Portrait Gallery, London.
In 2017, he created a large monochrome painting depicting Piccadilly Circus London, a busy central London shopping area, which involved meeting and painting the portraits of over 75 London residents directly from life.
In 2018, he painted over 55 portraits in a large oil painting depicting central London's Waterloo Bridge and Thames River area
(exhibited at The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 2019).
In 2021, Carl was commissioned by
Bob Bob Ricard
Bob Bob Ricard (or BBR) is a restaurant near Golden Square in London's Soho.
History
The restaurant opened in late 2008.
The restaurant is owned by the Russian-born British entrepreneur Leonid Shutov.
Wine pricing
BBR has a stated maximum m ...
to create a series of four new portrait paintings of restaurateurs/people in the hospitality industry, for their new £25 million
restaurant in the Leadenhall building, the City of London. The portraits depict chef & author
Pierre Koffmann; food critic for Bloomberg for 25 years Richard Vines; and restaurateurs/businessmen Leonid Shutov, and Roman & Mikhail Zelman. They are set against London locations such as the City of London, the Barbican centre, and
5 Hertford Street
5 Hertford Street (5HS) is a private members' club in Mayfair, London, which was described in 2017 as London's most secretive club. It has annual membership costs of £1,800 and is owned by the English businessman Robin Birley. Its interior des ...
Club in Mayfair.
Lecturing/talks
Randall has been invited to give talks at UCL Art Museum (University College London),
The London Art Fair,
CharterHouse School,
Cambridge University,
The British Council in Tokyo,
The National Portrait Gallery London,
The Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation (chaired by the Head of Undergraduate Painting at The Slade School),
and at The Swedenborg Society in Bloomsbury - invited by The Japan Society London.
In Tokyo, he was Adjunct Professor in Fine Art at Temple University Japan
and painting and drawing tutor at Suidobata Art Academy.
In London, he has been invited to give painting and drawing workshops at Heatherleys School of Fine Art,
The Art Academy
and The Royal Drawing School.
Selected works
Books
* ''Carl Randall – Japan Portraits'' (2013)
File:'Carl Randall - Japan Portraits' catalogue on sale at The National Portrait Gallery London.jpg, Signed copies of ''Japan Portraits'' at The National Portrait Gallery, London
The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...
, July 2013
File:Carl Randall Japan Portraits signing.jpg, Carl Randall signing copies of ''Japan Portraits'', at The National Portrait Gallery, London
The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...
, July 2013
References
External links
*
''Japan Portraits''– Documentary about Carl Randall in Japan, 11mins 33s (YouTube), 2013.
''London Portraits''– Documentary about Carl Randall's 'London Portraits' project, 11mins 6s (YouTube), 2016.
''BBC World Service: World Update. 'Painting the faces in Japan's crowded cities– BBC interview with Carl Randall, 2016.
''Piccadilly Circus''– Short video showing the making of Carl Randall's 'Piccadilly Circus' painting, 1min 42s (YouTube), 2018.
''Waterloo Bridge''– Short video showing the making of Carl Randall's 'Waterloo Bridge' painting, 1min 24s (YouTube), 2019.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Randall, Carl
20th-century British painters
British male painters
21st-century British painters
British portrait painters
1975 births
Living people
Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art
Tokyo University of the Arts alumni
20th-century British male artists
21st-century British male artists