Rupert Whale
Education
2019-2021 Turps Off-site Painting course London
2015-2017 MA Fine Art UAL Central Saint Martins London
1994-1995 BA (Hons) (part 2) Middlesex University London
1972-1974 BA Art and Design Fine Art (part1) Exeter College of Art Devon UK
Rupert Whale employs a range of painting techniques to represent pictorial space. His particular emphasis is on the dual nature of a painting as both a two-dimensional flat surface and an illusory object – implying depth, evoking emotion and creating narrative. His works are essentially abstract but often contain figurative elements.
I am pleased to announce that as from June 2022 the Brook Street Gallery of Mayfair London W1K 5DR has chosen to represent my work in the UK.
www.brookstreetgallery.com
@brook_street_gallery
I am busy preparing work for when they will next exhibit in The Affordable Art Fair in Battersea, London in October 2022.
I have recently shown in a group show Colourflex at the Terrace gallery Leyton London E10
Work also on show at the Unity Cafe Leytonstone London E11
Herb Shellenberger’s Review of Rupert Whale’s Central Saint Martins MA Fine Art Exhibition Paintings
6 June 2017
In his Slippage series, Rupert Whale shows three works that reveal surprising and fractured approaches to abstract painting. Hard-edged borders become blurred or covered by objects while solid and squeegeed colour forms mix with simple drawings. “Slippage 4” seems to at first reveal an inset view of the larger background image. Upon closer inspection, the shaped section reveals a different narrative based on the same tonality but incorporating more coherence in shape and structure.
Misconceptions like this become productive moments in the artist’s canvases, drawing the viewer in and producing unexpected dissonances. Whale dispenses with the rigidity we might associate with artists like Gerhard Richter in favour of a more ambiguous tenor and a generous interaction with the viewer.
While the three large canvases are painted with a certainty that comes from experience, they also signal an artist who is in the process of developing new ideas and forms, a painter who is wilfully on the cusp of new ideas and experiments that he is diligently working through.
Herb Shellenberger, Independent Curator
Collections, Awards and Representation
2022 Representation in the UK by Brook Street Gallery, Mayfair, London
2021 Art Gemini Prize 2021 winner of the Painting prize with Circular #1
2019 Winner of the Campari Commission with CodexCampari . First shown in Estorick Gallery, London. Permanent collection in Campari Gallery, Milan
2017 Slippage 5 selected for University of the Arts London Collection
Slippage 4 chosen by rapper Swizz Beatz for The Dean Collection, No Commission Berlin
2015 Work in Tim Sayer collection (bequeathed to The Hepworth Museum, Wakefield)
Solo Exhibitions
2018/19 Critical Mass Cloisters Temple London
2013 Rupert Whale The Stonespace Gallery London
Selected Exhibitions, Residencies and Publications
2023
The Affordable Art Fair: May Hampstead London
The Morality Of Attention Highams Park London
Koppel X Piccadilly Circus London
2022
Reading Between the Lines Koppel Project Hive Holborn London
The Affordable Art Fair: October Battersea Park London
Colourflex Terrace Gallery Leyton London
Borderlands 2 East Cliff House Mistley Essex
Borderlands Fitzrovia Gallery London
Flux Review Edition 7 May studio article
On Paper Paper Gallery Manchester UK
2021
Art Gemini Prize 8th Edition Exhibitionist Hotel London UK
Studio Confetti Terrace Gallery Leyton London UK
2020
Showcase Koppel Project Exchange Piccadilly London
Show-Off Menier Gallery Southwark London
Residency Brisons Veor Cape Cornwall UK
2019
Winter Salon Offshoot Gallery East Finchley London
Campari Commission Estorick Collection Islington London
No Captcha Thanks The Offshoot Gallery East Finchley London
Commixture The Koppel Project Central Soho London
Colour Luren gallery Suzhou China
Call That Art The Old Parcel Office Scarborough, then Islington Arts Factory
Residency Brisons Veor Cape Cornwall UK
2018
Critical Mass solo exhibition Cloisters Temple London
The A5 Show Koppel Project Holborn London
Summer Residency Koppel Project Holborn London
Slightly Seared on the Reality Grill Unit 5 Gallery London
Is this Art? The Old Parcel Office Scarborough Yorkshire UK
Painting / Prints Sichuan University Gallery Chengdu China
From the Outside Looking In The Zetter Hotel Clerkenwell London
2017
Flock 17 London Graduates GTX Gallery Camberwell London
Paint Works Art Pavilion Mile End London
Bacardi “No Commission” The Dean Collection Berlin
Degree Show One Lethaby Gallery Central Saint Martins University London
2016
Show 4 Central Saint Martins London
Drawing Oxo Building London
Leave Your Mark CSM Tate Art Exchange Tate Modern London
2015
3 Painters The Original Gallery London
Refit at the Rag Factory Heneage Street London
Four London Painters 54 The Gallery London
2014
Selected for 2 person show The Zetter Hotel Clerkenwell London
2013
Transitions The Original Gallery London
2012
The Journey Lauderdale House London
Revealing the Hidden CityLit London
When the Walls Come Down Norlington Studios London
1980
Mural Collage Darwin College refectory University of Kent at Canterbury UK