Brian Rice

The Art Stable is delighted to be presenting a personal selection of large oils, smaller gouaches and works on paper from the studio of Brian Rice, all made over the past ten years. These works, full of colour and a strong sense of form, reflect Rice's interest in archaeology (particularly ancient rock art) which has engaged him over the past thirty years.

Brian Rice was born in 1936 and studied at Yeovil School of Art and Goldsmiths College, London. In the 1960s and 70s he taught at numerous art colleges in and around London, and until 2001, at Brighton College of Art (now the University of Brighton).

Rice had great critical acclaim early in his career and during the 1960’s and 70’s his work was everywhere: He exhibited regularly at the New Vision Centre Gallery, and the London Arts Gallery whose owner, Eugene Shuster commissioned over twenty-five editions of screenprints from Rice. In 1968 when the Geffrye Museum designed a 'modern' room, the picture on the wall to accompany the Habitat furniture was Rice’s. Similarly, when Anne de Courcy designed The Evening News show house for the 1970 Ideal Homes Exhibition, she chose paintings and prints by Brian Rice to go on the wall.

He began exhibiting in 1961 and has had 35 solo exhibitions and around 200 group exhibitions around the world. His work is held in over 60 public and corporate collections worldwide, including the Tate Gallery, V&A Museum, the Geffrye Museum, the Government Art Collection, the British Council, Plymouth City Art Gallery, Southampton City Art Gallery, Exeter Museum, and in several USA institutions.

In his essay of 2001 'A Mystery of Shapes', Professor Michael Tucker of the University of Brighton wrote of Rice: 'A very fine pictorial intelligence is at work in these paintings. It is an intelligence that is as evident in the quality of the various grounds which body forth the images as it is in the freshness and assurance with which those images come to both graphic and painterly life. They do so in some of the most sophisticated yet primitive, decorative yet poetically inspiring works of recent British painting - works which underline the full extent of the critical re-evaluation and appreciation which have long been due to this artist.'

Below are a selection of images in the exhibition. Please let us know if you would like to see more.

Thoms Theory, 2007 oil on canvas 127cm x 112cm	Glassonby, 2005 oil on board 37.5cm x 30.5cm	Snowfield, 2001 acrylic & mixed media on canvas 76cm x 91cm sold
Yannamme, 2000 gouache & oil pastel 56cm x 76cm	Crescentstone, 2004 oil on board 49cm x 58.5cm	Wassily's Dream, 2004 oil on board 25cm x 30cm (image)
Autumn Colours, 2008 acrylic & mixed media on canvas 44cm x 44cm (framed)