Andrew Hardwick 'Uncultivated Land'

a n d r e w h a r d w i c k u n c u l t i v a t e d l a n d

“What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images...”
T.S Elliot, The Wasteland
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‘Uncultivated Land’ continues to demonstrate Andrew
Hardwick’s ongoing concern with, and depictions of, the
contemporary landscape. The exhibition is another chapter
or ongoing documentation of his experience, locale
and our ongoing treatment of it.
Inspiration continues to be gathered from a specifically
intimate and deep rooted relationship with ‘place’, cultivated
through a heritage where his family’s farm adjoined
the Bristol Channel. First dissected by the building of
the motorway and then again by expansion of the docks,
most of what Hardwick grew up with has now gone. This
story remains typical of all too many locations across the
country and further afield, which continue to experience
ongoing dramatic transition in the name of progress.
In a very literal sense Hardwick has witnessed his
personal history and the intertwined landscape of his
childhood, become fractured, buried and now lost.
Remaining land, fenced off, now awaits development
with much of it so heavily polluted that it could no
longer be used for crops. This same area is infused by the
light of the nearby sea, coloured by countless years of
pollution from its industrial neighbours. The new world
has, in an all to real sense, devoured the old.
Hardwick new paintings are of places both witnessed and
places envisioned. They are simultaneously pertinent,
nostalgic and prophetic, reflecting the role of the
romantic tradition of painters such a John Constable and
Paul Nash. These are ghost like paintings, where these
edge-land and wilderness zones can’t ever quite escape
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the subtle reminders of our human interference which
subverts or jostles with the pastoral.
Whilst continuing to embrace and enhance a tradition,
Hardwick’s paintings also continue to subvert through
his unconventional technical approach. Works are
heavily layered using societal left overs - substance
surplus to modern need, found or discarded. Paints and
varnish are often sourced from recycling centres or skips,
added to plaster, plastics, ash, soils, pigments, spray
paint or glue applied impasto over wire, felt, geotextile
membrane, canvas, wood and other unconventional
materials. The resultant geological and palimpsestic
surface reflects the confusion, complexity and proceeding
redevelopment of our existential interplay with the
wider subject. The exquisite subtlety of colour and tone
built within the surface is often contrasted by a visceral
rawness, nurtured or attacked, with love and indiscriminate
fervour - evoking a nature “red in tooth and claw” and
our “red in tooth and claw” treatment of it - reinforcing
our ongoing ecological abandon. These are places to
which we feel a simultaneous connect and disconnect.
Andrew Hardwick’s oeuvre makes constant reference to
concepts of change, transience and loss. It is not just
the rendering of a place, the memory of which becomes
all too easily discarded to the scrap heap. The real loss
maybe our place within it, as a direct consequence of our
contemporary concerns, which may well become
inconsequential in the long run. Uncultivated thought
could lead us further towards inhabiting a place that we
may no longer be able to call home.
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Spring, Storm & Moor
mixed media, 109 x 244 cm
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Fire
mixed media, 30 x 46 cm
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Wasteland, Hedge & Phantom Image of a Power Station
mixed media, 124 x 244 cm
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Polluted Lake on a Former Tip
mixed media, 38 x 53 cm
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Ruin & Tree
mixed media, 36 x 46 cm
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Empty Barn & Wasteland
mixed media, 116 x 314 cm
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Ruin & Woods, Late Summer Light
mixed media, 35 x 54 cm
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Fields Becoming Wasteland, Moonlight
mixed media, 122 x 170 cm
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Crazy Well Pool
mixed media, 92 x 122 cm
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Moorland & Reservoir
mixed media, 160 x 401 cm
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Red Sky & Moon, Quarry & Snow
mixed media, 100 x 120 cm
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Bonfire, Beach
mixed media, 100 x 120 cm
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Strange Island
mixed media, 180 x 240 cm
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Scrapyard & Estuary
mixed media, 35 x 45 cm
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Dock & Car Storage by the Estuary
mixed media, 32 x 42 cm
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Piles of Topsoil & A Disused Pit
mixed media, 98 x 183 cm
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Brown Sky & Pile of Limestone
mixed media, 23 x 28 cm
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Conifer Forest, Frost, Sunrise
mixed media, 35 x 54 cm
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Orange Sunset
mixed media, 122 x 284 cm
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Brown Estuary & Iceberg
mixed media, 92 x 122 cm
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Large Iceberg, Estuary
mixed media, 120 x 310 cm
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Andrew Hardwick was born in Bristol, England in 1961 where he still resides on a smallholding near Royal
Portbury Docks. He is an elected Academician at the Royal West of England Academy. Works have been exhibited
extensively including numerous public shows including ‘Earth Digging Deep in British Art 1781-2022’, alongside
Lamorna Birch, William Blake, John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough, William Henry Hunt, Richard Long, John
Martin, David Nash, John Nash, Paul Nash, Samuel Palmer, John Piper, Yinka Shonibare, Stanley Spencer, Graham
Sutherland and J. M. W. Turner among others. Works can be found in collections worldwide. Andrew Hardwick is
represented by Anima Mundi.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2025 Uncultivated Land (Solo), Anima Mundi, St Ives
2024 Wounded Land (Solo), Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London
2023 Lost Landscapes, Plough Arts Centre, Devon
The Art of Making, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
2022 The Last of the Silence (Solo), Anima Mundi, St Ives
Earth: Digging Deep in British Art 1781-2022, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Forgotten Land (Solo), The Spring, Havant
Wilderness and Warehouses (Solo), Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot
2021 Bath Society of Artists, Victoria Gallery, Bath
2020 Ground (solo), Colston Yard, Bristol
2019 Emerging Landscapes, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Summer Show, Royal Academy, London
Edgelands (solo), Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery, Stockport
Edgelands (solo), Atkinson Gallery, Millfield, Street
2018 Fragmented Land (solo), Ruskin Mill, Nailsworth
2017 Explorations of the Sky, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Wilderness (solo), South Hill Park, Bracknell
Remnant (solo), North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford
2016 Palimpsest (solo), Anima Mundi, St Ives
Summer Show, Royal Academy, London
2015 Scarred Wilderness (solo), Millennium, St Ives
2014 The Power of the Sea, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Material Gesture (solo), Sidcot Arts Centre, Sidcot
2013 Moor (solo), Millennium, St Ives
2011 Evanescent Earth (solo), Millennium, St Ives
2010 Tidal Wilderness (solo), Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
Autumn Show, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
2009 Where the Sea Meets the Estuary (solo), Burton Art Gallery, Bideford
2008 Estuary (solo), Newport Museum & Art Gallery, Newport
2007 Atruim Gallery (solo), Bournmouth University, Bournemouth
2006 Forgotten Ground (solo), Central Art Gallery, Ashton-under-Lyne
2005 Fragmented Land (solo), Folkestone Museum and Art Gallery, Folkstone
2004 Between Land and Tide (solo), South Tipperary Arts Centre, Clonmel, Ireland
Partial View curated by Matthew Collins, Hot Bath Gallery, Bath
2003 Veiled Earth (solo), Otter Gallery, University College Chichester
2001 Earth, Sea and Sky (2 person), Kirkby Gallery, Liverpool
2000 Between Land and Water (solo), The Phoenix Gallery, Brighton
1999 Elemental Dynamics (solo), Flax International Arts Centre, Belfast
Transient Land (solo), The Viewpoint Gallery, Plymouth College of Art, Plymouth
1997 Deluge (solo), Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
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Orange Sunset
mixed media, 23 x 29 cm
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Andrew Hardwick is a British landscape artist born in Bristol, England in 1961 where he still resides on a
smallholding near Royal Portbury Docks. He is an elected Academician at the Royal West of England Academy and
has featured in five solo exhibitions at Anima Mundi since 2011. Works have been exhibited extensively including
numerous public shows most recently ‘Earth Digging Deep in British Art 1781-2022’, alongside Lamorna Birch,
William Blake, John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough, William Henry Hunt, Richard Long, John Martin, David Nash,
John Nash, Paul Nash, Samuel Palmer, John Piper, Yinka Shonibare, Stanley Spencer, Graham Sutherland and J. M.
W. Turner among others. Works can be found in collections worldwide.
ART EDUCATION
1992 – 95 BA (Hons) Fine Art, University of the West of England, Bristol
1995 – 97 MA Fine Art, University of Wales, Cardiff, Wales
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2022 The Last of the Silence (Solo), Anima Mundi, St Ives
Earth: Digging Deep in British Art 1781-2022, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Forgotten Land (Solo), The Spring, Havant
Wilderness and Warehouses (Solo), Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot
2021 Bath Society of Artists, Victoria Gallery, Bath
2020 Ground (solo), Colston Yard, Bristol
2019 Emerging Landscapes, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Summer Show, Royal Academy, London
Edgelands (solo), Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery, Stockport
Edgelands (solo), Atkinson Gallery, Millfield, Street
2018 Fragmented Land (solo), Ruskin Mill, Nailsworth
2017 Explorations of the Sky, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Wilderness (solo), South Hill Park, Bracknell
Remnant (solo), North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford
2016 Palimpsest (solo), Anima Mundi, St Ives
Summer Show, Royal Academy, London
2015 Scarred Wilderness (solo), Millennium, St Ives
2014 The Power of the Sea, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Material Gesture (solo), Sidcot Arts Centre, Sidcot
2013 Moor (solo), Millennium, St Ives
2011 Evanescent Earth (solo), Millennium, St Ives
2010 Tidal Wilderness (solo), Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
Autumn Show, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
2009 Where the Sea Meets the Estuary (solo), Burton Art Gallery, Bideford
2008 Estuary (solo), Newport Museum & Art Gallery, Newport
2007 Atruim Gallery (solo), Bournmouth University, Bournemouth
2006 Forgotten Ground (solo), Central Art Gallery, Ashton-under-Lyne
2005 Fragmented Land (solo), Folkestone Museum and Art Gallery, Folkstone
2004 Between Land and Tide (solo), South Tipperary Arts Centre, Clonmel, Ireland
Partial View curated by Matthew Collins, Hot Bath Gallery, Bath
2003 Veiled Earth (solo), Otter Gallery, University College Chichester
2001 Earth, Sea and Sky (2 person), Kirkby Gallery, Liverpool
2000 Between Land and Water (solo), The Phoenix Gallery, Brighton
1999 Elemental Dynamics (solo), Flax International Arts Centre, Belfast
Transient Land (solo), The Viewpoint Gallery, Plymouth College of Art, Plymouth
1997 Deluge (solo), Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
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Published by Anima Mundi to coincide with Andrew Hardwick ‘Uncultivated Land’
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Photography by Martin Edwards
Anima Mundi . Street-an-Pol . St. Ives . Cornwall . +44 (0)1736 793121 . mail@animamundigallery.com . www.animamundigallery.com

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