Andrew Bick
OGVDS-GW-AB #5, 2018
Watercolour, marker pen, pencil, and collage on paper
76 x 56 cm
29 7/8 x 22 1/8 in
Framed: 84 x 63 cm
33 1/8 x 24 3/4 in
29 7/8 x 22 1/8 in
Framed: 84 x 63 cm
33 1/8 x 24 3/4 in
Andrew Bick (b. Gloucestershire, UK, 1963) received an MA in painting from the Chelsea School of Art (1988) and has since shown extensively in Europe and the U.S. Bick lives...
Andrew Bick (b. Gloucestershire, UK, 1963) received an MA in painting from the Chelsea School of Art (1988) and has since shown extensively in Europe and the U.S. Bick lives and works in London.
Andrew Bick’s practice consists of endless permutations – at the core is a grid system, one he reproduces time and time again. In 2008, Bick copied a grid structure from one of his own artworks, digitised it, and has since used this same grid as a starting point for every piece. In Bick’s view, new versions of the abstract, concrete and constructive, necessitate the repetition of banal information, leading to an unexpected conjuncture of word and image. His work is based on the belief that disruption within a system helps us relearn the process of paying attention.
Bick pays close attention to the formal processes of painting as well as the legacies of constructivism, systems art and concrete poetry. A vast knowledge and appreciation of art history informs the work, alongside longstanding visual and verbal dialogue with figures such as Gillian Wise and Jeffrey Steele. Bick also developed correspondence with concrete poet Robert Lax, collaborating on several publications. Despite historical research being at the forefront of the artist’s practice, he works very much in the present, highlighting the canonical to subvert the rules. Gently deconstructing what has come before with deft humour. Bick uses systems not to predetermine the outcome, but to conjure new ways of thinking and to develop different results. The works act as a re-evaluation of constructivism and systems art, simultaneously celebratory and disruptive.
In his drawings, the artist uses the original grid as a starting point to cultivate a serial of variations entitled OGVDS-GW. The drawings, unlike the paintings, are made collaboratively - the idea is that there is an element of improvisation by someone else, which is completely out of Bick’s control. Another person assists by marking out the grids, which are then finished when Bick cannot make any more adjustments. The initials of whoever has helped make the work is then added to the end of the title, for example, the OGVDS-GW-SBworks were made in collaboration with Selina Baechli, a Swiss scientific illustration student. The drawings are made in sets, the last of which were shown at his institutional solo exhibition at Haus Konstruktiv (Zurich, Switzerland, 2017).
Andrew Bick’s practice consists of endless permutations – at the core is a grid system, one he reproduces time and time again. In 2008, Bick copied a grid structure from one of his own artworks, digitised it, and has since used this same grid as a starting point for every piece. In Bick’s view, new versions of the abstract, concrete and constructive, necessitate the repetition of banal information, leading to an unexpected conjuncture of word and image. His work is based on the belief that disruption within a system helps us relearn the process of paying attention.
Bick pays close attention to the formal processes of painting as well as the legacies of constructivism, systems art and concrete poetry. A vast knowledge and appreciation of art history informs the work, alongside longstanding visual and verbal dialogue with figures such as Gillian Wise and Jeffrey Steele. Bick also developed correspondence with concrete poet Robert Lax, collaborating on several publications. Despite historical research being at the forefront of the artist’s practice, he works very much in the present, highlighting the canonical to subvert the rules. Gently deconstructing what has come before with deft humour. Bick uses systems not to predetermine the outcome, but to conjure new ways of thinking and to develop different results. The works act as a re-evaluation of constructivism and systems art, simultaneously celebratory and disruptive.
In his drawings, the artist uses the original grid as a starting point to cultivate a serial of variations entitled OGVDS-GW. The drawings, unlike the paintings, are made collaboratively - the idea is that there is an element of improvisation by someone else, which is completely out of Bick’s control. Another person assists by marking out the grids, which are then finished when Bick cannot make any more adjustments. The initials of whoever has helped make the work is then added to the end of the title, for example, the OGVDS-GW-SBworks were made in collaboration with Selina Baechli, a Swiss scientific illustration student. The drawings are made in sets, the last of which were shown at his institutional solo exhibition at Haus Konstruktiv (Zurich, Switzerland, 2017).