The Lloyd Gill Gallery: Lou Reade

Born: June 15, 1985

I am interested in most forms of art, but I practice primarily in painting, and also have a strong interest in photography.

In the final year of my university degree, I focused particularly on portraits. They were bold pieces with large areas of colour, and in some cases fragmented. This progressed onto the portraits being an abstract, yet, linear line, still with a large area of colour to complement it. The artist Gary Hume, who I had used as part of my research, largely inspired these final pieces.

In the year after my degree, my progress had been limited. I made a few more paintings of portraits, but my work was mainly kept in sketchbooks as drawings of things around me, or from photos I had taken.

My most recent work has been inspired by a couple of trips I made to Venice and New York. These trips have hugely motivated me, and I feel I am progressing as an artist, as my interests are taking shape once again.

I became particularly keen on developing work from my "Bikes in New York" piece.
I was fascinated by chained up bikes I saw in New York City when I visited in December 2008. They all had a similar character about them, a sense of abandonment. They were rusted, and some with missing wheels; they were everywhere.

When I returned to my home in the UK, I decided to paint these bikes. I enjoyed painting them [“Bikes in New York”], particularly the long frames and the interesting angle, which I’d never really noticed before, of those oddly circular shapes we see as the bicycle’s wheels. This made me want to paint more bikes.

I have become strangely motivated by these objects that I perhaps once would have thought of as boring, and I am embracing them. It is not my intent to ensure them as political, although some may believe so, but instead they act as an invigorating subject for me so far, as a somewhat struggling artist.

I am still developing as an artist and I realise this. I anticipate the work I will create in the near future, and the path of progress it will take me.

Email: lou.m.reade@googlemail.com

Other work can be viewed at:
www.louisemichellereade.co.uk

Education

-   BA (hons) Fine Art, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (2004-2007)
-   Foundation Diploma in Art & Design, Weston College (2003-2004)
-   The King Alfred Sixth Form (2001-2003)
-   The King Alfred School (1997-2001)

Group Exhibitions

-   "A Postcard is Worth 1000 Words" APW Gallery, NYC (June 2009)
-   The Sketchbook Project 3 "Everyone We Know" (The Art House); USA
(February - June 2009)
-   The Old Library, Cardiff (March/April 2009)
-   The Lloyd Gill Gallery; Weston Super Mare (February/March 2009)
-   Degree Show; University of Wales Institute, Cardiff. (June 2007)
-   Jacob's Market;Cardiff (April 2006)
-   Foundation Fine Art Show; Weston College (June 2004)