Ged Quinn (born 1963,

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

) is an English artist and musician. He studied at the

Ruskin School of Art The Ruskin School of Art, known as the Ruskin, is an art school at the University of Oxford, England. It is part of Oxford's Humanities Division. History The Ruskin grew out the Oxford School of Art, which was founded in 1865 and later became ...

and St Anne's College in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, the

Slade School of 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 as ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, the

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Magdalena Jetelová, ...

and the

Rijksakademie The Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts) was founded in 1870 in Amsterdam. It is a classical academy, a place where philosophers, academics and artists meet to test and exchange ideas and knowledge. The school support ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. He now lives and works in the UK. Quinn has exhibited internationally in many shows including 'FOCUS: Ged Quinn' at the

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (widely referred to as The Modern) is an art museum of post-World War II art in Fort Worth, Texas with a collection of international modern and contemporary art. Founded in 1892, The Modern is located in the c ...

, Texas, US, 'Endless Renaissance' at

Bass Museum The Bass Museum of Art is a contemporary art museum located in Miami Beach, Florida. The Bass Museum of Art was founded in 1963 and opened in 1964. History Early years John Bass (1891-1978) and Johanna Redlich (m. Feb. 21, 1921) were Jewish-imm ...

, Miami Beach, 'Beyond Reality: British Painting Today' at

Galerie Rudolfinum The Rudolfinum is a building in Prague, Czech Republic. It is designed in the neo-renaissance style and is situated on Jan Palach Square on the bank of the river Vltava. Since its opening in 1885, it has been associated with music and art. Curr ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, and 'Newspeak: British Art Now' at State Hermitage Museum,

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Russia. He was represented by Wilkinson Gallery and is now represented by Stephen Friedman Gallery in London. In addition to his work as an artist, Quinn was a member of the 1980s new wave musical groups

the Teardrop Explodes The Teardrop Explodes were an English post-punk/neo-psychedelic band formed in Liverpool in 1978. Best known for their Top Ten UK single "Reward", the group originated as a key band in the emerging Liverpool post-punk scene of the late 1970s. T ...

the Wild Swans The Wild Swans (Danish: ''De vilde svaner'') is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a princess who rescues her 11 brothers from a spell cast by an evil queen. The tale was first published on 2 October 1838 in Andersen's '' ...

and the Lotus Eaters, and co-wrote the latter band's 1983 hit single " The First Picture of You".

Work

He specialises in

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...

paintings that include contemporary images (generally on controversial topics in Western

cultural history Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing the ...

) in idyllic scenes based on classical paintings such as the

pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...

works of

Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in It ...

and

Caspar David Friedrich Caspar David Friedrich (5 September 1774 – 7 May 1840) was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscape ...

. For example, his "Cross in the Wilderness" introduces a miniature

Spandau Prison Spandau Prison was located in the borough of Spandau in West Berlin. It was originally a military prison, built in 1876, but became a proto-concentration camp under the Nazis. After the war, it held seven top Nazi leaders convicted in the Nurem ...

, the iconic jail for

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

war criminals, into a forest scene based on "Der Chasseur im Walde" by Friedrich, a leading painter in German

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

. Another painting, "Darkening of the Green", places the controversial

HM Prison Maze Her Majesty's Prison Maze (previously Long Kesh Detention Centre, and known colloquially as The Maze or H-Blocks) was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house alleged paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from August 1971 to Sept ...

into a rural landscape. Despite the familiar aspects in Ged Quinn’s use of painting techniques—ranging from the classical and Romantic traditions of European landscape, such as

, to the American Sublime—his introduction of incongruent and often disturbing imagery, disruptions of scale, and an undercurrent of religious sensibility and political and cultural iconography creates a sense of haunting and dislocation. In Quinn’s work, the landscapes themselves have a visionary character, providing an unfolding freedom that is a boundless showground for significance. There are circulations, juxtapositions, and layering that allow for a large amount of readings and narratives to develop and disappear. There is a constant sense of play both between and within the imagery, which gives space for meanings, yet ultimately denies the satisfaction of any final explanation. There is an energy that moves throughout his works, which is in part driven by Quinn’s surreal and radical methods of composition and use of imagery. In conflicting and irregular landscapes, there are complex voids and structures. Quinn is celebrated for his densely layered paintings that transform art historical techniques into contemporary experience. His paintings critique cultural icons through intervention, rather than through strict representation, with concepts of historicity and the collapse of boundaries between the internal and external, all working in definite ways to generate a stimulating political and cultural dialogue. He works in meticulous detail and executes with extraordinary technical skill. Multiple histories, narratives, and mythological emblems collide.

Selected exhibitions

Solo

*2017 ''Rose, Cherry, Iron Rust, Flamingo'', Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong, China *2016 ''Ged Quinn'', Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK *2014 ''Ged Quinn'', Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK *2013–14 ''Ged Quinn'',

New Art Gallery Walsall The New Art Gallery Walsall is a modern and contemporary art gallery sited in the centre of the West Midlands town of Walsall, England. It was built with £21 million of public funding, including £15.75 million from the UK National Lottery and ...

, West Midlands, UK *2012–13 ''Endless Renaissance'',

, Miami Beach, USA *2012 ''FOCUS: Ged Quinn'',

, Texas, USA *2010 ''Ged Quinn'', Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK *2010 ''Somebody’s Coming That Hates Us'', Wilkinson Gallery, London, UK *2007 ''My Great Unhappiness Gives Me a Right to Your Benevolence'', Wilkinson Gallery, London, UK *2005 ''The Heavenly Machine'',

Spike Island, Bristol Spike Island is an inner city and harbour area of the English port city of Bristol, adjoining the city centre. It comprises the strip of land between the Floating Harbour to the north and the tidal New Cut of the River Avon to the south, fro ...

, UK *2004 ''Utopia Dystopia'', Tate St. Ives, UK. *1994 ''Oxide Cinema'', video media installation,

, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Group

*2018 ''Richard Patterson , Ged Quinn'', Galleria Mucciaccia, Rome, Italy *2017 ''Synthetic Landscapes: Reviewing the ideal landscape'', Meadow Arts and Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery, Weston Park, Shifnal, UK *2015 ''CLASSICICITY: Ancient art, contemporary objects'', Breese Little, London, UK *2015 ''Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition'', Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK *2015 ''Homeland: Glenn Brown, Dexter Dalwood, Ged Quinn, Toby Ziegler,'', Simon Lee HK, Hong Kong, China *2014 ''Somos Libres II'',

Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli The Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli is an art gallery in Turin, Italy. It opened in 2002 on the top floor of the Lingotto complex (the headquarters of the Italian auto giant Fiat founded in 1899 by Giovanni Agnelli), where a "scrigno" or 450 ...

, Turin, Italy *2014 ''Cake and Lemon Eaters: Viktor Pivovarov and Ged Quinn'',

, Prague, Czech Republic; The Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava, Czech Republic *2014 ''Landscape 2000'', Osnabrück Cultural History Museum and

Felix Nussbaum Haus The Felix Nussbaum Haus is a museum in Osnabrück, Germany, which houses the paintings of German-Jewish painter Felix Nussbaum. The building also houses an exhibition space, which focuses on racism and intolerance. Origins By the 1980s, the cit ...

, Osnabrück, Germany *2013 ''Looking at the View'',

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

, London, UK *2013 ''The Future's Not What It Used To Be'',

Newlyn Art Gallery Newlyn Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located in Newlyn, Cornwall, UK. Opened in 1895, designed by James Hicks of Redruth and financed by John Passmore Edwards the gallery was conceived as a home and exhibition venue for the Newlyn ...

, Penzance, UK *2013 ''Disaster/The End of Days'',

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Thaddaeus Ropac are a group of galleries founded in 1981 by the Austrian gallerist Thaddaeus Ropac and has since specialized in International Contemporary Art. The group has galleries in Paris Marais, Paris Pantin, Salzburg and London. Histor ...

, Paris, France *2012 ''The Endless Rennaissance'',

Bass Museum of Art The Bass Museum of Art is a contemporary art museum located in Miami Beach, Florida. The Bass Museum of Art was founded in 1963 and opened in 1964. History Early years John Bass (1891-1978) and Johanna Redlich (m. Feb. 21, 1921) were Jewish-imm ...

, Miami, USA *2012 ''Beyond Reality: British Painting Today'',

, Prague, Czech Republic *2012 ''Everywhere and nowhere'', Reydan Weiss Collection, Oberstdorf, Germany *2010 ''The Witching Hour, Waterhall'',

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BM&AG) is a museum and art gallery in Birmingham, England. It has a collection of international importance covering fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, natural history, archaeology, ethnography, local h ...

, Birmingham, UK *2010 ''Chambres à part IV: Mascarade, A proposition by Laurence Dreyfus'', Paris, France *2010 ''Restore Us and Regain: Ged Quinn, Tommy Grace, Tony Swain'', Mackintosh Museum, The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, UK *2010 ''Lust for Life & Dance of Death'', Olbricht Collection, Kunsthalle Krems, Austria *2010 ''Newspeak: British Art Now'',

Saatchi Gallery The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art and an independent charity opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985. Exhibitions which drew upon the collection of Charles Saatchi, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving to the D ...

, London, UK *2009 ''Newspeak: British Art Now'', State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia *2009 ''Kunskog, Five Hundred Dollars'', London, UK *2009 ''Kings, Gods and Mortals'', Hamish Morrison Galerie, Berlin, Germany *2008 ''John Moores 25'',

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...

, Liverpool, UK *2008 ''Made Up, Liverpool Biennale 2008'',

Tate Liverpool Tate Liverpool is an art gallery and museum in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and part of Tate, along with Tate St Ives, Cornwall, Tate Britain, London, and Tate Modern, London. The museum was an initiative of the Merseyside Development Corpo ...

, UK *2008 ''Jekyll Island'', Galerie Charlotte Moser, Geneva, Switzerland *2008 ''Doktors Traum, Olbricht Collection—New Aspects'', Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen, Germany *2008 ''Monochrome: Drawing & Prints'', Rabley Drawing Centre, Wiltshire, UK *2007 ''Stranger than Paradise'', Galerie Charlotte Moser, Geneva, Switzerland *2007 ''Rockers Island'', Olbricht Collection,

Museum Folkwang Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...

, Essen, Germany *2007 ''Salon Nouveau'', Engelholm Gallery, Vienna, Austria *2006 ''Collezionami, 2nd Biennale of Southern Italy'', Puglia, Italy *2005 ''The Real Ideal'', Millennium Galleries, Sheffield, UK *2005 ''Wonderings…'', Waugh & Thistleton, London, UK *2005 ''ShowCASe'', City Art Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland *2005 ''MOSTYN 2005'', Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales, UK *2000 ''Brooks Quinn Voss'',

, Penzance, UK *1999 ''Show'', Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York, NY, USA *1999 ''IWPC 10'', Museum of Recent History, Ljubliana, Slovenia *1997 ''Performance, video installation with Oliver Herring'',

Camden Arts Centre Camden Art Centre (formerly known as Hampstead Arts Centre until 1967 and Camden Arts Centre until 2020) is a contemporary art gallery in the London Borough of Camden, England that hosts temporary exhibitions and educational outreach projects. T ...

, London, UK *1995 ''Language of the Wall'', Museum of Contemporary Art, Ljubliana, Sloveni

Collections

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, London, UK, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, USA, Honart Museum, Tehran, Iran,

, Texas, USA, Olbricht Collection, Essen, Germany,

Saatchi Collection The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art and an independent charity opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985. Exhibitions which drew upon the collection of Charles Saatchi, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving to the D ...

, London, UK,

Tate Collection Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, London, UK,

Tel Aviv Art Museum Tel Aviv Museum of Art ( he, מוזיאון תל אביב לאמנות ''Muzeon Tel Aviv Leomanut'') is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art from Israel and aroun ...

, Israel,

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, London, UK,

K11 Art Foundation The K11 Art Foundation (KAF) is a non-profit art foundation based in Central, Hong Kong, named for an eponymous shopping centre and established by the shopping centre's operator. It supports the development of Chinese contemporary art from Greate ...

(KAF), Hong Kong

Fellowships and residencies

*1995 ''British Council bursary'' for Slovenia *1993 ''NUFFIC bursary'' for

, Amsterdam, the Netherlands *1988 ''DAAD Scholarship'', Germany *1987 ''Boise Fellowship''

Selected publications

*20 Years, essays by Stephen Friedman and Sarah Thornton (2015), Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK (catalogue) *Cake and Lemon Eaters. Viktor Pivovarov & Ged Quinn (2014),

, Prague, Czech Republic *Ged Quinn, text by Michael Bracewell and Dr Brian Dillon (2013),

, West Midlands, UK *Ged Quinn: FOCUS, text by Andrea Karns (2012), Fort Worth Museum of Art, Fort Worth, Texas, USA (exhibition brochure) *Ged Quinn (2011), Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK (catalogue) *Lust for Life & Dance of Death (2010), Olbricht Collection, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems, Austria *Newspeak: British Art Now (2010), The Saatchi Gallery, London, UK *Newspeak: British Art Now (2009),

The State Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the largest ...

, Saint Petersburg, Russia *My Great Unhappiness Gives Me a Right to Your Benevolence, text by Michael Bracewell (2007), Wilkinson Gallery, London, UK

References

External links

Ged Quinn at Stephen Friedman GalleryInterview for Vernissage TV at 2012 Frieze Art Fair
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quinn, Ged Living people 1963 births Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni Alumni of the Ruskin School of Art Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art English contemporary artists English new wave musicians English keyboardists English songwriters The Teardrop Explodes members The Wild Swans members The Lotus Eaters (band) members