GLASTONBURY COMES TO LONDON
gallery@oxo, Wed 19th May – Sun 23rd May 2010. 11am – 6pm
Bargehouse, Wed 2nd June – Sun 6th June 2010, 11am – 6pm
One of Britain's leading painters and Glastonbury festival’s artist in residence, Kurt Jackson, is exhibiting paintings of Lily Allen, Radiohead, Massive Attack and other artists who performed recently at Glastonbury in London’s gallery@oxo on the South Bank. The paintings and sketches of artists, bands and scenes from the festival will be auctioned in aid of environmental group Greenpeace. Jackson has been Glastonbury’s artist-in-residence for many years, creating dynamic and exciting work in the unpredictable environment of the festival crowd.
"Fun and politics are a great mix – so… I go to Glastonbury Festival to work – I sketch and draw and paint and scribble above the crowds, in the crowds, under peoples feet, in their faces; I aim to immerse myself in the Glastonbury experience and come away with some kind of record on paper showing what I’ve seen, felt and experienced.” he explains.
The exhibition comes just before the 40th anniversaries of both the Glastonbury Festival and Greenpeace. The two have been intimately entwined throughout the years with Greenpeace running its own field since 1995. Jackson describes the close relationship he has with both -
"The great thing about Glastonbury is that it’s about fun and delight (and a bit of hedonism) but also engages with the serious issues of the future of the planet and our environment. Forty years of Glastonbury – I’ve been at most of them, I’ve painted over a quarter of them. Greenpeace has also been there throughout my life and their fortieth is coming up. Glastonbury and Greenpeace have become entwined, woven together as an important strand of my working and political life."
Kim Harrison, one of the exhibition’s organizers, describes the work –
“These paintings and sketches show festival royalty looking out across their massed ecstatic armies, veiled travellers from the Sahara cradling their guitars like electric scimitars, lost revellers fluttering around the lights of a doughnut stall and panoramic landscapes of the vast faerie city of mud and scaffolding, neon and wood smoke that swirls across the Vale of Avalon after summer solstice.”
Michael Eavis, the founder of Glastonbury, describes how it came about –
"My daughter Juliet, who lives next door to Kurt, phoned me years ago to tell me of his amazing work. We were all immediately convinced of his artistic skills and he was appointed our "Artist in Residence". From then on all is now history as his terrific ability speaks for itself. His paintings hang all around the world, portraying the unique atmospheric colours and shades of perfection that our Festival creates."
The free exhibition opens in the gallery@oxo in the Oxo Tower Wharf on Wednesday the 19th of May, closes on the 23rd and then reappears in the Bargehouse on the 2nd of June to join the the Heathrow Contest - innovative architectural designs for the 21st century fortress Greenpeace will use to resist BAA's bulldozers on the site of Heathrow's proposed third runway.
Jackson's work will be auctioned online in aid of Greenpeace, and details can be found on the Greenpeace website - www.greenpeace.org.uk/kurtjackson
Oxo Tower Wharf,
Bargehouse Street,
South Bank, London SE1 9PH
www.coinstreet.org
020 7021 1686
More of Jackson's paintings can be viewed at his website www.kurtjackson.co.uk
Image: Kurt Jackson, District Six, flags and crowds; sunset 2009
