A Closer Look: Modern Art & St Ives Display

For our October A Closer Look, painters Samuel Bassett and Andy Harper will be talking in the Modern Art and St Ives Display about their own work and works on display at Tate St Ives. Both artists live and work in West Penwith and are involved in the life and art of the area – from football teams to the Lafrowda Festival. Both have a long history of working at Porthmeor Studios and their work reflects a connection with rural landscape and its histories.

The invitation to talk is also in connection with the film Arcadia which will be screened in the evening (tickets £5/4), both are fans of the film and will share some of their highlights in relation to the traditions and myths of Cornwall.

Andy Harper is an artist based in West Cornwall. He lives in St just and works in St Ives. He has been involved in many artist run activities such as NotCut studios in London, Braziers International Artists’ Workshop in Oxfordshire and Assembly in St Just. Harper studied Fine Art at Brighton Polytechnic (BA 90–93) and the Royal College of Art (MA 93-95). After co-founding NotCut studios in London (1996) he also studied Visual Culture at Middlesex University (MA 97-99). He is represented by Danese Corey in New York and regularly works with Patrick Heide in London. Harper was born in 1971 and grew up in Torquay, Devon.

Samuel Bassett is a British artist born in Cornwall in 1982 and currently lives and works in St Ives. His most recent works imbue a deep-rooted connection to place, the sea and the landscape, as well as community and heritage. The localised placement of these cautionary tales become allegorical for broader more universal hopes and wider loss, fear and disconnection. Bassett studied illustration at Bournemouth Arts Institute (BA hons 03-06) and moved to London but soon returned to Cornwall in 2009 to concentrate on his art practice. He has exhibited in the US, Australia and throughout Europe working predominantly with Galerie Kornfeld in Berlin and Anima-Mundi gallery UK.