Simon Gales (born 1964) is a contemporary British artist and painter of limited output who destroys much of his work. He exhibits mainly in London and France.

Life and work

Simon Gales was born in

Polstead Polstead is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. The village lies northeast of Nayland, southwest of Hadleigh and north of Colchester. It is situated on a small tributary stream of the River Stour. Histor ...

, Suffolk in 1964. He studied art at

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wo ...

under Jon Thompson and achieved the joint highest mark graduating alongside

Gary Hume Gary Stewart Hume (born 9 May 1962) is an English artist. Hume's work is strongly identified with the YBA who came to prominence in the early 1990s. Hume lives and works in London and Accord, New York.

and

Ian Davenport Ian Davenport (born 8 July 1966) is an English abstract painter and former Turner Prize nominee. Life and work Ian Davenport was born in Sidcup, and studied art at the Northwich College of Art and Design in Cheshire and then at Goldsmith ...

in the YBA year of 1988. The following year he was selected as one of 25 'Christies New Contemporaries' that included Mark Francis and Glenn Brown in a highly publicised show at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...

where six works from his degree show were to be auctioned by Christie's in what was to be the first auction of young contemporary artists by a major auction house. The show attracted media attention and his work was featured in the '' Telegraph Weekend Colour Supplement'' as well as the '' BBC 1 O'Clock News''; the auction surpassed expectations making £500,000 with Gales's selling for over four times the estimate. This led him to be commissioned by London Transport for which he painted ''Childhood'' a painting

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

used to publicise the

V&A Museum of Childhood Young V&A, formerly the V&A Museum of Childhood, is a branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum (the "V&A"), which is the United Kingdom's national museum of applied arts. It is in Bethnal Green and is located on the Green itself in the East End ...

at Bethnal Green. 6,000 full sized posters were printed for underground stations with a further 3,000 smaller ones for the escalators. Gales's early metaphysical works incited him to be included in a number of largely conceptual exhibitions such as ''A Spiritual Dimension'' in 1989, a major touring exhibition organised by

Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery houses the historical and art collections of the city of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, England. Managed by Vivacity on behalf of the city council, it is part of the Greater Fens Museum Partnership. Histo ...

along with former Goldsmiths tutors Brian Falconbridge, Michael Kenny and Carl Plackman and including Craigie Aitchison,

Tess Jaray Tess Jaray (born 31 December 1937) is a British painter and printmaker. She taught at The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL from 1968 until 1999. Over the last twenty years Jaray has completed a succession of major public art projects. She was made ...

and

Bob Law Bob Law (22 January 1934 – 17 April 2004) was a founding father of British Minimalism concerning painting and sculpture.Chilvers, Ian and Glaves-Smith, John, ''A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art'', second edition (Oxford and New Yo ...

and supported by works from the

Arts Council Collection The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...

as well as that of the Royal Academy. Due to the small scale of Gales's works at this time, he was invited again from 1991–1992 to show with Craigie Aitchison in another touring exhibition which was curated by Gillian Jason called ''Cabinet Paintings'' which also included

Frank Auerbach Frank Helmut Auerbach (born 29 April 1931) is a German-British painter. Born in Germany, he has been a naturalised British subject since 1947. He is considered one of the leading names in the School of London, with fellow artists Francis Bacon ...

Howard Hodgkin Sir Gordon Howard Eliott Hodgkin (6 August 1932 – 9 March 2017) was a British painter and printmaker. His work is most often associated with abstraction. Early life Gordon Howard Eliot Hodgkin was born on 6 August 1932 in Hammersmith, ...

Euan Uglow Euan Ernest Richard Uglow (10 March 1932 – 31 August 2000) was a British painter. He is best known for his nude and still life paintings, such as ''German Girl'' and ''Skull''. Biography Euan Uglow was born in 1932 in London. As a child, he l ...

and Sarah Raphael. Gales had a series of solo and joint exhibitions notably at the Jill George Gallery in 1990 and later at The Bruton Street Gallery, London in 1999, 2001 which sold out and again in 2003 at which point the gallery closed down. Gales's interest in

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

was due to the influence of initial tutorials with Jon Thompson at Goldsmiths, particularly in regards to the role of intuition. "He put into my head that an extra dimension could be explored beneath the surface of a subject." This resulted in a long series of metaphysical paintings that have more recently undergone some radical changes from spare, singular, kinetic images of varying focus through to carefully designed minimal works bordering on abstraction. These latter pieces are often painted on rectangular panels, the smaller one attached as if floating in front of the larger, casting real shadows that constantly change according to the light. These shadows interplay with the painted image so that the painting becomes a physical reality in the space of the spectator.

Description of his works

He talks about his fascination with greys that is evident in the scull painting.

Museum, public gallery, project space summary

* ''Simon Gales Off Limits'' 2019 (The Factory exhibition space, Factory Fifteen):- The Factory, London * ''Les Ambassadeurs'' 2019 (with Jane Harris and Jiri Kratochvil, Espace d'Art Contemporain L'Artboretum):- Moulin du Rabois, Argenton sur Creuse, France * ''Alive In The Universe'' 2019 (1 minute films, Caroline Wiseman Modern & Contemporary):- Palazzo Pesaro Papafava, 58th Venice Biennale * ''FDAC Collection 2018'' 2019 (Fonds Departmental d'Art Contemporain):- Espace Culturel François Mitterrand, Périgueux, France * ''Cabinet Paintings'' 1991-92 (Gillian Jason Gallery, London):-

Hove Museum and Art Gallery Hove Museum and Art Gallery is a municipally-owned museum in the town of Hove, which is part of the larger city of Brighton and Hove in the South East of England. The museum is part of "Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton and Hove", and admission ...

, Sussex;

Glynn Vivian Art Gallery The Glynn Vivian Art Gallery is the public art gallery of the City and County of Swansea, in Wales, United Kingdom. The gallery is situated in Alexandra Road, near Swansea railway station, opposite the old Swansea Central Library. History The ...

, Swansea, Wales * ''Childhood'' 1991 (London Underground,

, London):- London Transport Museum * ''A Spiritual Dimension'' 1989-90 (Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery, Arts Council):Dr August K Wiedmann 'A Spiritual Dimension' published by Peterborough City Council 1989 .-

; Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry; Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum; Winchester Gallery,

Winchester School of Art Winchester School of Art is the art school of the University of Southampton, situated 10 miles (14 km) north of Southampton in the city of Winchester near the south coast of England. History The Winchester School of Art was founded in 187 ...

; Wolsey Gallery,

Christchurch Mansion Christchurch Mansion is a substantial Tudor brick mansion house built in Ipswich, Suffolk by Edmund Withypoll (also written "Withipoll") around 1548–50. The Grade I listed building is located within Christchurch Park and sits by the southe ...

, Ipswich;

Shipley Art Gallery The Shipley Art Gallery is an art gallery in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, located at the south end of Prince Consort Road. It has a Designated Collection of national importance. Origins The Shipley Art Gallery opened to the public in 1 ...

,Gateshead * ''Christie's New Contemporaries'' 1989 (Christie's):-

, London

References

External links

Artist's official websiteCaroline Wiseman Modern & ContemporarygettyimagesFDAC Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gales, Simon 1964 births Living people People from Polstead British contemporary painters Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London British male artists