The London Show: Views of London and London life by gallery artists and invited guests

Our deliberately eclectic exhibition charts the London experience through the eyes of our represented artists and invited guests. Some artists have focused on well-known views and landmarks, others on forgotten corners. Some will recast areas as bucolic escapes from the commotion of the city, others embrace the close proximity strangers coexist in. Our London show is more about life in the city than the city itself, from Nick Botting's observations of café society to Clive Head’s fractured depictions of milling crowds where figures intermingle and move through space as one.

Edward Seago’s watercolours provide us with a glimpse of London’s past and Richard Rees offers a contemporary take on familiar landmarks which have stood unchanged for decades. Dennis Creffield’s paintings and drawings show the process of a city being reborn in the aftermath of the war and Neil Douglas’s architectural paintings focus on the modernity of the city.

Some of our views are loving portrayals by locals whose pride in their hometown informs their work. Other artists, like a sizeable portion of the city’s population, are not local. Lachlan Goudie (Glasgow) and Ruth Stage (Hartlepool) both manage to find tranquillity away from the regular tourist haunts. Artists like Paul Rafferty live and work in different countries altogether but reconnect to the city through their painting. Ken Howard’s paintings of London have inspired a legion of other artists to revaluate and depict the city.

Our show is a loosely themed celebration of London, offering a mix of familiar and alternative perspectives. We look forward to welcoming you to the warmth of the gallery for a little site seeing and people watching in mid-December.

For enquiries, please email art@portlandgallery.com