Tony Plant
Roots and seeds mark the artists journey into original expression. For starters: Tony Plant’s childhood footprint is set deep into the cliffs and coves of his native Cornwall. Later, at Chelsea Art school, Plant was fortunate to have outstanding tutors - Helen Chadwick’s post modernist art celebrated the transience of life: with her famous ‘Piss Flowers 1991-2’ she made casts of her own piss drawings in the snow. Chadwick’s snow and Plant’s sand - using nature as their muse and canvas, just as the aboriginal rock artists did 35,000 years ago.
Tony Plant’s neat swirls and circles owe much to his tutorage in Geometric modernism, but away from modern art education and into the world - we see one man and a rake, a romantic landsman, making patterns in the sand with the mindfulness of a Zen monk attending to his gravel garden, or the Medieval farmer hand ploughing a field of perfectly aligned furrows.
Tony Plant Dances around the tide, playing a game with nature’s light and nature’s scale, filming the transformation with his drone at different times of night and day - we are reminded that Monet did something close with his series of thirty ‘Haystacks 1890-91.’ The beauty of Plant’s sand drawings is that they never overwhelm the landscape, instead they nestle into the spaces between rock, sand and sea - ornamental tracery on a monumental scale gifting the viewer an unexpected poetic experience.
CIRCLE is showing Tony plants delightfully quirky assemblages. Tony Plants 2D wall sculptures are constructed of lines and pattern, layers of paint, assembled canvas and reclaimed wood. Each piece is a place, a walk he repeats night and day, sometimes for days, mapping the trail in his head. Plant captures the sense of place and sometimes bringing back reclaimed items found on the way. His work is a wonderful celebration of the ever-changing coastal environment and a reminder that impermanence can be treasured.
Exhibitions
Selected Group Exhibitions:
Trust New Art. Sutton House, London 2020
Circle Contemporary Gallery 2020
Scilly Isles 2020
ARCA Project, Payne Shurvell Gallery, Snape Maltings 2019
Walk Scilly, Commissioned Artist. 2018
Hireth. Changing the Cornish Landscape. Royal Cornwall Museum. 2018
ARCA Project Payne Shurvell Gallery. London. 2017
Royal West of England Academy. Drawn. 2017
Penwith Gallery, St Ives. Mixed abstract painting show. 2017
San Miguel/Guardian rich list. 2016
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
Porthmeor Studio 5, St Ives. 2019
Porthole Space. Night Walk Zennor 2019
Heartland Project National Trust, Shropshire Hills AONB Painting exhibition. 2017
Royal Cornwall Museum. Walk. Stop. Walk. 2016
Selected Screenings:
Ocean Film Festival, China, Australia, Ireland, Belgium, New Zealand, Italy and UK. 2019
Al-Nahj International Film Festival, Iraq. 2018
Aesthetica Film Festival. BAFTA recognised. 2017
Hull City of Culture. Directors choice special screening. 2017
Hong Kong Ocean in Motion Film Festival. 2015
ICA, The Mall. London. 2014
Ocean Film Festival. Australia, Asia, Europe. 2014
Riverside Studios, London Short Film Festival. 2014
Celtic Media Festival. 2014
Selected Talks:
Carding Mill Valley. Artist talk/walk 2017
Charles Causley Festival, Cornwall. Artists Talk. 2016
University of Derby. Practising artist lecture. 2015
Ocean Film Festival, Hall for Cornwall. 2014
Coolangatta, Australia. Practising artist talk. 2014
Plymouth College of Art and Design. Practising artist lecture. 2014
Residencies:
Porthmeor Studio 5, St Ives. 2019
Ambassador for Plastic Project. 2016
Brisons Veor Residency. 2016
St Agnes Outsider Residency, funded by FEAST. 2015
Bermuda Residency. 2015
Opera Australia. 2 week residency, Queensland. 2014
A2AA Residency Plymouth College of Art. 2014 Port Eliot Festival. Artist in Residence. 2014
4 week drawing Residency, Rame Peninsula. 2014
Publications
Guardian Newspaper:
“Since graduating in 1990, Plant has carved out a successful career as a multi-disciplinary visual artist, making large scale, site specific temporary works, exhibiting globally and acting as a visiting lecturer at art institutions and Universities.” Guardian Newspaper. 2017
Die Zeit:
“Tony Plant schafft an Cornwalls Küsten Kunst mit der Harke. Zubesichtigen sind seine Werke zwischen Ebbe und Flut. Leinwand aus Sand”. Silke Burmester. 2014
Guardian Newspaper:
“Tony Plant's art not only celebrates the landscape, it's part of it, he is an artist in the very purest form of the word, and to him, making work is as natural as breathing”.
Marcel Theroux. 2016