Biography
Tim Hemington comes from Cheshire in the UK. He did his Art Foundation Course at Cheshire School of Art and went on to do his BFA degree at the Ruskin School of Drawing and of Fine Art at Oxford University. He was made a Scholar of University College Oxford and after graduation he lived and worked in Berlin, Germany. He gained an MA in Post War & Contemporary Art from the University of Manchester in the UK and was Henry Moore Fellow at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London. He has exhibited widely and has had solo exhibitions in the UK, Germany, Italy & Portugal. He has also curated exhibitions and assisted other artists (including Angela de la Cruz and Andy Goldsworthy) on some of their more ambitious projects. His work is in many international collections including Deutsche Bank Collection. Partly due to his relocation to Japan, between 2005 and 2013 Tim Hemington retreated from exhibiting publicly choosing to concentrate on developing his practice in private. He is now exhibiting again.
Exhibited or worked with the following artists:
Bernard Frize
Bert de Beul
Aldo Chaparro
Maria Chevska
Angela de la Cruz
Sean Dawson
Andy Goldsworthy
John Goto
Carola Gollner
Alexis Harding
Peter Harris
Dennis Hollingsworth
Hans Jorg Holubitska
Louise Hopkins
Erwin Legl
Elizabeth Magill
Fabian Marcaccio
Ingo Mellor
Hiroko Nakao
Chris Ofili
David Reed
Carol Rhodes
Terry Smith
Keizo Tawa
Graham Todd
Richard Wright
Artist's Statement 2015: Figurative Paintings Japan 2015
"Painting is about thinking, doing and reacting. The subject of this new series is painting itself although not in a self-reflexive way. I am not referencing the history of painting or extending the language of painting. I am avoiding vertical lines as they suggest architecture, horizontals as they suggest landscape and spots as they suggest objects in space. The processes are steered towards a creation of a different kind of forms, which suggest things: in particular hanging shapes that form a cross. This cross suggests the human body or birds in flight - two subjects that are intrinsically relatable. Rather than depict however, I prefer to leave the paintings open to suggestion. Figurative, abstract, gravitational, aerial, process based– painting can be all these at the same time." Tim Hemington 2015
Artist's Statement: 2014
There is nothing more appealing than the potentiality of the blank canvas, except perhaps, a studio full of blank canvases. The transient nature of this is what makes it so appealing. Change is a law of nature – transformation is part of life, but for a painter when faced with a blank canvas, time seems temporarily suspended until that first brushstroke is applied. Then the process begins, the challenge is how to endow that surface with the same sense of stoppage, the same sense of finality that the piece had when blank. If the work is to be successfully resolved then time has to appear captured – it exists within the piece itself. Perhaps it’s the only way we can control nature’s laws and transcend the inevitable, making painting the most metaphysical of worldly endeavours”. Tim Hemington 2014
Artist's Statement: 2012
“Happiness is not a warm gun nor should you paint as you like and die happy!
Abstract painting endures. Maybe its because there's something unique about the space of abstract painting. Its thingyness - its objecthood, fused with its ability to offer possibilities of both illusionistic window space and intellectual window space. Maybe this is why abstract painting continues despite so many predictions of its demise. It has a flat yet three-dimensional stability in a world full of transient imagery and temporary installation. The way forward should not simply be by referencing Ryman’s reductivism and Richter’s postmodernism or by quoting from quotations but by doing much more than that. Abstract painting still has more to offer than that. Extending the language is important but if abstract painting fails to do anything real, outside of contributing to the language of painting itself and it’s tired self-reflexivity then it does nothing. Gravitas & sensibility in abstract painting today will provide an occasion for it. If it is to continue - to endure with any real meaning or purpose, it needs to have more substance than the sum of its parts". Tim Hemington. 2012
Curriculum Vitae/Resume
1968 Born in Cheshire UK.
Lives and Works in Kanagawa, Japan
Biography/Education
2006 Moved to Japan
2004-06 Lived & Worked in Anglesey, North Wales
1998 Henry Moore Fellow. Byam Shaw School of Art, London, UK
1995-96 MA. Post War & Contemporary Art. (Critical Studies), University of Manchester, UK
1996-04 Lived and worked in London, UK
1991-95 Lived and worked in Berlin, Germany
1990 Cyprus School of Art, Cyprus
1988-91 BFA. The Ruskin School of Drawing and of Fine Art. Oxford University, UK
1987-88 Art Foundation Studies, Cheshire School of Art, Northwich, UK
Awards
1999 Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust Award.
1995 Scholarship, Sotheby’s Institute, London, UK
1990 De Marco Gallery Award, Oxford Union Open, Oxford, UK
1989-91 Scholar, University College, Oxford, UK
1989 Oxford University Distinction, (Prof Peter de Francia RCA, London, UK)
1988 Becks Bier Premiere Award, (Albert Irvin & Marina Vaizey), Oxford Union Open, Oxford, UK
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2020 Elsewhere, Hino Gallery, Tokyo
2017 Paradox, Hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2013 Mountains & Trees: Galerie Jidai, Yokosuka, Japan
2011 Demarcation & Paintscapes: Featured Gallery, Virtual Gallery, Spain
2003 Tim Hemington & Hiroko Nakao. (Collaboration), Andrew Mummery Gallery, London, UK
1999 White Paintings, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London, UK
Despite Straight Lines, Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon, Portugal
1998 Living in the White Monochrome, Galleria Carbone, Turin, Italy (Catalogue)
Tim Hemington & Terry Smith, The Concourse Gallery, Byam Shaw School of Art, London UK
1996 Spilt Milk, Andrew Mummery/33 Great Sutton Street, London, UK
1994 Kunst im LCC. Painting. Hemington and Gollner. The National Congress Centre, Berlin, Germany
1991 The Ruskin School of Art Degree, Show, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
1990 The Human Predicament. Westgate Gallery, Oxford, UK
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022 Gratitude: Art & Music Event. Curated by Hiroko Nakao, Galaxy Room, Yokosuka, Japan
Beyond Japanese: Art & Music Event. Curated by Hiroko Nakao, Galaxy Room, Yokosuka, Japan
2020 Nice To See You, To See You Nice, CASC Gallery, Chester, UK
2016 Gravitas, Hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2006 My Room. Museum Sophienholm, Copenhagen, Denmark
2005 Remarkable. Andrew Mummery Gallery, London, UK
1998-00 Liste, Basel, Switzerland.
Artissima, Turin, Italy.
The Brussels Art Fair, Belgium
Bologna Art Fair, Italy.
ARCO, Madrid, Spain
London Art Fair, UK
1999 Charlie Wright’s. Curated by Peter Harris and Stuart Taylor. Charlie Wright’s, London, UK
1997 Stepping Up. Andrew Mummery/33 Great Sutton Street, London, UK
Stages. Lee Fine Arts/Wirral Museums, Eastern Village Gallery, Birkenhead, UK
1996 Deutsche Multiple Sklerose Geselltschaft Austellung, Galerie am See, Tiergharten, Galerie
Raphael Vostell, Berlin, Germany
Galerie Kley, Hamm, Germany
1995 Galerie Kley, Hamm, Germany
Autos & Bewegung, AKB Galleries, Cologne, Germany
1994 Le Cadavre Exquis, Curated by Jaqueline Rugo (Galerie Tammen & Busch), Berlin, Germany
1991 Seventeen Artists, University College, Oxford University, UK
Ministry of Transport Exhibition, Business Design Centre, London, UK
Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art Degree Show, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
1990 The Barbizon Gallery, Glasgow, UK
Oxford Union Open, (DeMarco Gallery Award), Oxford Union, Oxford, UK
1989 Whitworth Young Contemporaries, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
Oxford Union Open, (Becks Bier Premiere Award), Oxford Union, Oxford, UK
Projects
2002-12 Technical and Installation Assistant to Artist; Hiroko Nakao. Exhibitions include; The Bold and
Beautiful, London and Japan Four, PumpHouse Gallery, London, UK
2000-02 Various Private Commissions including; The White Tabernacle, Hawkstone Hall, UK
1998 Assistant to Artist: Angela de la Cruz. Larger than Life. The Royal Festival Hall, London, UK
Assistant to Artist: Andy Goldsworthy. Permanent Sculpture Commission, Waterside, Heathrow Airport, London, UK
1996 Curator, Stepping Out. Richard Wright, Alexis Harding, Angela de la Cruz, Liz Magill, Bert de Beul, Rachel Bailey, Aldo Chapparo,
Andrew Mummery/33 Great Sutton Street, London, UK
Curator, English Graduates, Galerie IF, Berlin, Germany
Selected Printed Bibliography
2009 Anthony Thomas: Painter who Sculpts:Sculptor who Paints. Official Website
2008 Luca Beatrice. This World is Fantastic. 20 years with Guido Carbone. Modern & Contemporary Art. Italy
2004 Dennis McBride, Tim Hemington: The White Tabernacle, Hawksone Hall Publications
2003 Martin Coomer. Tim Hemington & Hiroko Nakao. Exhibition Review, Time Out, London.
2000 Work featured in David Bowie video
1999 Marcella Beccaria, Exhibition review, Living in the White Monochrome, Flash Art International
Franscisco Commisso, Exhibition Review, Living in the White Monochrome, Segno, Italy
David Green, Abstract Paintings and Arbitrary Objects, Contemporary Visual Arts London
Mark Gisbourne, The Contemporaries Contemporaries, Contemporary Visual Arts London
CNN Coverage, Living in the White Monochrome, Galleria Carbone, Turin, Italy.
1996 Martin Coomer, Stepping Out, Exhibition Review, Time Out, London, No, 1362
1994 Karin Muller, Art and Modern Ambience, Top Magazine, Berlin, Germany
Karin Muller, Artist: Tim Hemington, Top Magazine, Berlin & Potsdam, Germany
Bob Tilly, Contemporary English Art in Berlin, TV Interview, Orb TV Munich, Germany
1993 Karin Muller, Galerie IF, The New Address in Kreuzberg, Top Magazine, Berlin, Germany
1990 Sarah Rickwood, The Human Condition, Exhibition Review, ISIS Magazine, Oxford, UK
The Barbizon Gallery, ITV, Scotland, UK
1989 The Human Predicament, Exhibition Review, Cherwell Newspaper, Oxford, UK
Catalogues
2017 Paradox: Tim Hemington. Text by Tony Godfrey. Hino Gallery, Tokyo
2012 Paintscapes, Virtual Gallery Spain
2006 My Room. Museum Sophienholm, Copenhagen, Denmark
2000 Deutsche Bank Collection
1999 Living in the White Monochrome, Text by Bianca Maria Polledro, Galleria Carbone, Turin
Collections
Hino Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, Deutsche Bank, Galerie Pedro Cera Lisbon Portugal, Galleria Carbone Turin Italy, Hawkstone Hall Shrewsbury UK, Universal Pictures, Andrew Mummery London, Collection of David Baddiel London, Collection of Dermot & Tessa Coleman UK, Collection of Eugene Tan Singapore, Browns London & Various Other Private Collections
Selected Professional Academic Experience
2023- Professor: Sophia University, Japan
Post War & Contemporary Art
Art & Language: Creative Media for Expression
Cross Referential Art Forms: Adaptations
2006- Lecturer: Keio University SFC , Japan
Art & Language
Post War & Contemporary Western Art History
Curatorial & Commissioning Contemporary Art
2018-20 Professor: Faculty of International Studies, Meiji Gakuin University, Yokohama Campus, Japan
Artists Tackling Global Issues
2004-06 Lecturer: University of Chester, Chester, UK
Tutorials for Final year Fine Art Students: Module. Studio Practice
Assessment: Degree Shows and Supporting Material.
Projects in Fine Art: Level 0 (Foundation), From Textiles to Painting.
Curation of Level 0 (Foundation) Exhibition : From Textiles to Painting
Art History Module Level 3 (Final Year): Modernism and Beyond: Postmodern Painting & The Curator as Artist
2003 Studio seminars for MA Students from Kingston School of Art, London
2002-03 Course Leader: 20tth Century Art. (Curatorial Studies), Community Education, Lewisham,
London
Lecturer: Pre-Foundation & Foundation Studies, Community Education, Lewisham, London
Lecturer: Life Drawing. Community Education, Lewisham, London
1998 Henry Moore Fellow: Artist in Residence. Byam Shaw School of Art, London
1997 Visiting Lecturer: The Ruskin School of Drawing and of Fine Art. Oxford University.
Visiting Lecturer: Oxford Brookes University, Oxford
1994 Portfolio Preparation for German Art Students. Foundation and BA Level Applications.
Painting & Sculpture Workshops, The Schlange Art Centre, Berlin, Germany
1991 Painting & Sculpture workshops for Primary Schools. St Bedes Primary School, Weaverham,
Cheshire and St Lukes Primary School, Frodsham, Cheshire, UK
1990 Artist in Residence. Helsby High School, Cheshire
EE
Copyright: Tim Hemington