Hurtwood Contemporary Artist Series – serie

Small Paintings presents the gestural, intimate and hauntingly beautiful paintings by Indian-born British artist Jai Chuhan from her solo exhibition at Qrystal Partners, London. Small Paintings presents the gestural and hauntingly beautiful paintings by Indian-born British artist Jai Chuhan. The book showcases the art created for her solo exhibition of the same name at Qrystal Partners in London in the summer of 2023. Chuhan often depicts lone figures in indistinct, nebulous interiors, exploring love and alienation. In other works, couples are huddled together, potentially locked in an embrace. The paintings evoke the psychological tensions between genders, agency and subjection, the familiar and the unreal. Their small scale creates a sense of voyeurism, reminiscent of what is felt when one looks through a window. Glimpses of bodies are shown in expressive poses that speak to moments of privacy, intimacy and vulnerability. Chuhan emigrated to London with her family in the late 1960s and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in the 1970s. Her practice engages deeply with histories of painting as she navigates transculturalism and the female gaze. Her influences, such as Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, are evident in her richly coloured and textured works. But, Chuhan’s position is distinctly different; her perspective refuses bravado and probes into ideas of empathy. Donald Ryan, co-founder of Qrystal Partners and Small Paintings' curator, contributes a foreword contextualising the exhibition and delineating Chuhan’s key artistic concerns. In her essay, Hannah Marsh, assistant curator of contemporary British art at the Tate, ruminates on the idea of being seen, holding space and how Chuhan’s art speaks on its own terms.

The first publication on British artist Marguerite Horner presents her monochromatic, radiant and accomplished paintings inspired by a trip to Beachwood Canyon, California, and produced in 2023. Numinous presents the monochromatic, radiant and accomplished paintings of British artist Marguerite Horner (b. 1954), inspired by a trip to Beachwood Canyon, California, and produced in 2023. The twenty-one watercolours and two oil paintings which make up the series of the same name depict flat expanses of sand, the sunlit sea, cacti, the silhouettes of distant people seen from above and occasionally American highways. They were first exhibited at the Crypt in St Marylebone Parish Church, London, in October 2023. The first publication on Horner’s work features a foreword by publisher and writer Matt Price, describing the charged, luminous moments depicted in the Numinous series and the significance of the natural world in the artworks. In his essay, multidisciplinary scholar Dr Matthew Holman discusses the setting of California and Horner’s painting style within the context of British and American painting and her previous bodies of work. Her 2017 series Keep Me Safe portrayed her experiences of driving the Chiswick Comboni Missionary Sisters to the Calais ‘Jungle’ refugee camp while her 2022 exhibition Back to Verve showed small-town life and the eerie quiet of suburbia. Numinous builds on her previous series to further explore ideas of landscape, human behaviour and the metaphysical. Through her watercolours and oil paintings, Horner explores the ‘numinous’, a concept defined by Lutheran theologian Rudolf Otto that indicates the presence of divinity. A keen observer, she is interested in the possibility of transcendence in everyday life and places.

The first publication on the work of London-based artist Freya Douglas-Morris documents her first solo exhibition with Alexander Berggruen, New York, in autumn 2023. This star I give to you is the first publication on the work of London-based artist Freya Douglas-Morris, presenting a body of paintings exploring the poetry, beauty and magic of landscapes and the natural world. Born in London in 1980, Douglas-Morris spent several of her childhood years in a village near the coast on the Isle of Wight before she and her family moved back to London. These experiences of the land, sea and sky contributed to her fascination with these subjects in her painting practice: ‘I think my love of being outdoors started then’ she remarks during her interview with British publisher Matt Price for this publication. The interview, which was held in the artist’s East-London studio shortly before Douglas-Morris’s solo exhibition of the same name at Alexander Berggruen, New York, in autumn 2023, explores topics including the artist’s love of walking, the genesis of the body of work in New York’s Central Park and the influence of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century modernist painting on her practice. Featuring the eight large oil paintings on canvas and five oil paintings on copper that were displayed in the exhibition, This star I give to you also includes a foreword by New York-based writer and Associate Director at Alexander Berggruen, Kirsten Cave, along with studio notes by the artist on each of the reproduced works. A graduate of University of Brighton and the Royal College of Art, London, Douglas-Morris has exhibited internationally in China, Taiwan, The Bahamas, Austria, Italy, France and America.

Indian Summer presents a group of skilful and expressive figurative paintings in oil on canvas and linen by India-born, London-based artist Raghav Babbar (b. 1997), first shown at Nahmad Projects in 2023. Indian Summer presents a group of skillful and expressive figurative paintings in oil on canvas and linen by artist Raghav Babbar (b. 1997) that include intimate portraits as well as large-scale group compositions. Babbar’s sitters span friends from his childhood in Rohtak, a city north-west of Delhi, pan-sellers, dancers from the south of India, family members, as well as himself. Indian Summer is the first publication on Babbar, which features reproductions of over forty works created from 2020–23 and views of his 2023 exhibitions at Nahmad Projects, London, and Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice. Lock Kresler, Senior Director at Helly Nahmad Gallery, London, introduces the book, explaining his first encounters with Babbar and his practice. An essay by art historian, broadcaster and commentator Dr Cleo Roberts-Komireddi examines how Babbar uses his materials, treats his subjects and delves into his sources of inspiration, classic Hindi and Tamil cinema and the School of London artists. Babbar celebrates the individual as he showcases the diversity of his country in his textural, rich and joyful portraits that teem with life.

Shadows of Boulder Hill presents Tang Shuo’s powerful paintings of his childhood experiences in rural China, documenting his concurrent solo exhibitions at Fabienne Levy’s galleries in Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland.Shadows of Boulder Hill presents a group of seventeen powerful paintings in oil on linen and a selection of drawings by artist Tang Shuo (b. 1987 in Guangxi, China) that delve into his childhood experiences in rural southern China. This, Tang’s first book, documents the concurrent exhibitions of these works at Fabienne Levy’s galleries in Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2023. Shadows of Boulder Hill marks a significant point in Tang’s career; in 2023 he incorporated narrative threads into his paintings for the first time, depicting young lovers, recluses and wanderers lost in imagined and remembered landscapes of lush vegetation and wildflowers. A selection of the fascinating true stories from Boulder Hill that inform Tang’s practice, personal and collective, are detailed in the gallery notes. Shadows of Boulder Hill includes a foreword by gallerist Fabienne Levy and an essay by multidisciplinary scholar Dr Matthew Holman. Holman explores the significance of time, place, perspective and memory in Tang’s recent body of work, as he considers the impact of China’s Cultural Revolution on subsequent generations. Tang’s move to the UK in 2020 prompted him to reconsider his past and his identity in a new country. Here, Tang appears as an artist who has found his voice as he eloquently explores scenes of family, friendship, suffering, solitude and survival.

Two series of small, colourful paintings by Birmingham (UK) based artist Ben Sadler, inspired by a curious cast of imaginary visitors to an imaginary exhibition. Featuring a foreword by Deborah Kermode, a text by Catherine O’Flynn and an interview by Ceri Hand. Ben Sadler’s colourful paintings of imaginary people are full of personality, eclectic states of mind and varying degrees of intrigue. These are consistently charming, sometimes amusing and occasionally heart-breaking portraits of ordinary and extraordinary people. The publication features two bodies of work: You and I (2024) and Exclamations! (2023), both of which present small paintings corresponding to each letter of the alphabet (though the letters U and I are curiously missing from the series You and I). Sadler’s starting point was the idea of visitors to an imaginary exhibition – who are they, what kinds of people are they, and what thoughts might be going through their minds? Such musings are explored in celebrated Birmingham-based author Catherine O’Flynn’s text – a piece of creative writing commissioned especially for the publication, along with a foreword by Deborah Kermode, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), Birmingham, and an interview by London-based creative coach, podcaster and public speaker Ceri Hand. Born in Birmingham (UK) in 1977, where he lives and works today, Ben Sadler studied at the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford, and the Royal College of Art, London. He is one half of the artist duo Juneau Projects, alongside Philip Duckworth.