Louise Hopkins

Louise Hopkins (born in England, 1965) is a British contemporary artist and painter currently living and working in Glasgow, Scotland. Presently, as well as developing her studio work, she teaches part-time at Glasgow School of Art.

She was born in Hertfordshire, England, graduating from Glasgow School of Art MFA Programme in 1994 after a two year course. She also attended the University of Northumbria (formerly Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic) from 1985-1988, graduating from there with a B.A.(Hons) in 1988. Prior to that, she attended the Foundations Studies course at Brighton Polytechnic from 1984-1985. For a time, after graduating from Newcastle Polytechnic, she lived and worked in Australia, where she also exhibited.

Hopkins first gained recognition in Glasgow and London in 1996.^[1] After gaining her MFA at Glasgow School of Art in 1994, she was shortlisted for the Jerwood Painting prize in 1997.

In 2002, she received a Creative Scotland Award. She held her first retrospective exhibition at The Fruitmarket Gallery in 2005 and in 2007, she was one of six artists chosen to represent Scotland at the 52nd Venice Biennale.^[2] In 2014, she exhibited at Linlithgow Burgh Halls as part of GENERATION-25 years of Contemporary Art in Scotland.

Work

Louise Hopkins is known for rarely making work on blank surfaces, choosing instead to start with a material that is pre-existing, and usually pre-printed, either with specific imagery or more generic graphic information. From this she develops painted or drawn marks as a way of engaging and transforming the surface.

Found surfaces that Hopkins works onto include furnishing fabric, maps, sheet music, graph paper, photographs, pages from history books and from commercial catalogues.

"The artist has spoken of her interest in working on supports which contain information, often an image, and in turning that image into a painting by repainting and hence remaking it."^[3]

"Louise Hopkins’s world is in an endless state of flux, becoming and adjustment. Meaning for her is never something to be merely established-through research, for example, or contemplation-but rather galvanised, sparked into a state of pulsing iteration and reiteration…In an indicative work, Untitled (011), 1998, she once crumpled a piece of white paper, the kind generally used to write or type or scribble or photocopy on. She acted not in anger or frustration but to make the paper more interesting, yet not less itself. To the same end, she then used a fine pencil to draw thin parallel marks delineating the faint shadows cast by the creases. The paper’s once latent complexity was unleashed. Its pristine (artless) past remained a presence beneath the surface. Through a set of effects, both accidental and intended the blank sheet had become defined, articulated through hard-edged incident; it also continued to carry the dynamic tension of its violent collapse." ^[4]

Solo exhibitions

Solo exhibitions include:

• Black Sea, White Sea, Linlithgow Burgh Halls, Linlithgow, (part of GENERATION-25 years of Contemporary Art in Scotland), 2014.^[5]
• Settings, Mummery + Schnelle, London, 2014.^[6]
• Project Room, Mummery + Schnelle, London, 2010.
• Harness at Mummery + Schnelle, London, in October/November 2008;^[7]
• Freedom of Information at The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, in 2005;^[8]
• The Round Room, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, in 2004;
• doggerfisher, Edinburgh, in 2003;^[9]
• Andrew Mummery Gallery, London, in 2003;
• Angles Gallery, California, in 2001;
• Andrew Mummery Gallery, London, in 1999;
• Artconnexion, Lille, in 1997;
• Galerie Isabella Kackprzak, Berlin, in 1997;^[10]
• Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan, in 1998;
• Tramway Project Room, Glasgow, in 1996;
• Aberdeen Art Gallery, in 1994;
• Canberra School of Art, in 1993;
• Ben Grady Gallery, Canberra, in 1992.

Commissions, Projects and Residencies

• Below another sky, Scottish Print Network International Residency Programme,2012–14;
• My Favourite Place, Scottish Book Trust Commission, 2012;
• Artist in Residence, Glenfiddich, Scotland, 2004;
• Artist in Residence, Canberra School of Art, Canberra, Australia, 1993

Awards

• Creative Scotland Award, Scottish Arts Council Lottery Award, 2002;
• Research and Training Award, Richard Hough Resource, Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, 2001;
• Scottish Arts Council Award, 1997;
• First Exhibition Award, Aberdeen Art Gallery, 1994
• Richard Ellis Award, Glasgow School of Art, 1994

Public collections

• Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen;
• Arts Council of England, London;
• Artbank, Sydney, Australia
• British Council, London;
• City Arts Centre, Edinburgh;
• Jumex Collection, Mexico; Colección Júmex;
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney;
• Museum of Modern Art, New York;
• Musee Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne;
• Paisley Museum and Art Gallery, Paisley;
• Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Rhode Island;
• Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh.

References

1. ↑ http://brooklynrail.org/2010/07/artseen/merlin-james-frame-paintings-louise-hopkins
2. ↑ britishcouncil.org
3. ↑ From "mark making" by Fiona Bradley, in Louise Hopkins: Freedom of Information, paintings and drawings, 1996-2005, published by The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 2005
4. ↑ From "adjustment" by Greg Hilty, a text originally published as part of Louise Hopkins: Freedom of Information, paintings and drawings, 1996-2005, published by The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 2005
5. ↑ http://generationartscotland.org/artists/louise-hopkins/
6. ↑ http://www.mummeryschnelle.com/pages/hopkins.htm
7. ↑ http://www.mummeryschnelle.com/pastpages/louise1.htm
8. ↑ http://fruitmarket.co.uk/images/exhibitionarchive/lh_archive.pdf
9. ↑ http://www.doggerfisher.com/exhibitions/exhibitiondetail.php?id=15
10. ↑ http://www.galerie-czarnowska.de/?/english/gallery-1997-2002.htm

External links

• Mummery + Schnelle representative gallery
• Below Another Sky
• The Fruitmarket Gallery
• Generation art Scotland
• Saatchi Art Magazine
• Review