Jason Lilley (b.1966)
Born: North Cornwall
Studied: Newcastle Polytechnic 1987-90, Falmouth School of Art 1986-87
Returned to Cornwall: 1991
Member of Penwith Society of Arts 2013
Assoc. Member of St Ives Society of Artists 2013
ITV & Channel Four Television - 'Elements' 1990/91
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
HIGHGATE CONTEMPORARY (two-man show with John Howard RE), London
2011
HIGHGATE CONTEMPORARY (two-man show with John Howard RE), London
2010
BEDALES GALLERY, Hants
2005
'Jason Lilley', Belgrave Gallery, St.Ives
2004
Glass House Gallery, Truro
Thompson's Gallery, London
2003
Out Of The Blue Gallery, Cornwall
2000
Blue II Gallery, Cornwall
Selected Mixed Exhibitions:
2014
Summer Exhibition, Belgrave St Ives
Penwith Gallery
2013
St Ives Society Print Show, St Ives
'Summer Exhibition 2013', Belgrave Gallery St Ives
Penwith Society Summer Show, St Ives
Highgate Contemporary Gallery, London
Impress 13, Print show, Bristol
Eleven and a half Gallery, London, Edinburgh, Bristol
2012
Highgate Contemporary Gallery, Hampstead
Summer Exhibition, Belgrave St Ives
20/21 Art Fair, London
Eleven and a half Gallery, London, Glasgow, Bristol
Poly Print show, Falmouth
2011
Highgate Contemporary Gallery, London
Eleven and a half Gallery, Cornwall, Edinburgh
Truro Museum, Cornwall
'Summer Waves 1 and 2', Belgrave St Ives
Byard Art, Cambridge
'Winter Exhibition: Paintings and 3D Works by Fifty Contemporary Artists', Belgrave St Ives
2010
'MMXMAS', Belgrave St Ives
Print show, Belgrave Gallery St. Ives
West Cornwall perspectives, Mayfair, London
'Salmagundi', Belgrave Gallery, St Ives
West by South west, Penzance
A4 Printmakers, Penryn, Cornwall & New Zealand
Bedales Gallery, Hants.
Prints at The Poly, Falmouth
2009
John Howard studio, Print show, Morvah
2009
'Three Representational Painters', Belgrave Gallery St. Ives
'Impress print festival', Gloucester
2008
'Prints from the studio', The Poly, Falmouth
'Six of one and half a dozen of the other', Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives2007
'St. Ives, Selected Artists', Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives
'Points of view', Glass House Gallery, Penzance
'A Postcard from St. Ives', Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives
2006
'The Cornish Connection', Belgrave, London
'Places and Spaces', Belgrave Gallery St. Ives
2005
Mixed exhibitions, Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives
2004
Two-person show 'Alternative Views', Out Of The Blue Gallery, Cornwall
'Porthmeor', Belgrave Gallery St. Ives
Thompson's Gallery, London
2003
Belgrave Gallery 'Four For Fore Streetof the Best', Out Of The Blue Gallery, Cornwall
2002
'A View of St Ives 3', Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives
2001
'Another View of St Ives', Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives
1997
Two-person show, Out Of The Blue Gallery, Cornwall
Overview:
Much more than simple visual responses, Cornish-born Jason Lilley's paintings engender a discourse between his own response to the physical, political and spiritual condition of his native county, and the perceptions of those who now claim the county as their own. Painting increasingly in oil (yet retaining the graphite element of a long period which employed elements of abstraction using watercolour and acrylics overlaid by pencil lines), Jason Lilley's paintings look like an individual yet characteristic interpretation of the familiar roofs, streets and coastline around St Ives. However, the work contains an underlying narrative based on the artist's concerns for the interaction between the elements, history and politics of the Penwith area in particular. These narratives are implied through composition, handling of media, visual clues and picture titles. But it is on an aesthetic level that the work finds its clearest appeal, where a developed and direct ease of line leads the eye around considered, sometimes studious, compositions. This facility with line is finding expression in the etchings and aquatints that now constitute a significant part of his output.
Richard Blackborow - Extract from 'The Cornish Collection' catalogue
The interlocking irregularity of Lilley's St.Ives skylines, in taking Nicholson's or Haughton's mid-century rhythmic architecture into a new century, reveals artistic continuity and the safe-guarding of a townscape protected by restrictions of natural geography and local planning regulations. Lilley's townscapes are thus both documentary and improvisatory in character, relying on a balance between naturalistic and plastic, descriptive and abstract factors.
Peter Davies - Extract from 'St.Ives 1975-2005: Art Colony in Transition'
Artist's Statement
St Ives as a subject is ideal in the way that views there are flattened by the lack of dark shadow. Light, it seems, is bounced off wall after wall from Porthmeor, Porthgwidden and the Harbour. This lack of depth helps concentrate the mind on line, colour, form, and their relationship with each other.