Lewis Hazelwood-Horner explores London’s Pubs and Breweries for his solo exhibition as Winner of The Columbia Threadneedle Prize 2016
The art of Lewis Hazelwood-Horner, winner of The Columbia Threadneedle Prize 2016, will be shown at a solo exhibition, Beer and Guns, at Mall Galleries in central London, between 19 and 24 September 2016.
Lewis Hazelwood-Horner won The Columbia Threadneedle Prize in February this year, after his work, Salt in Tea was chosen by the Selection Panel from 3,828 entries. The Columbia Threadneedle Prize is Europe’s leading open competition for figurative and representational art.
All works in his solo exhibition were created during Hazelwood-Horner’s residencies at a number of London businesses, many of which were pubs and breweries. The paintings show all stages of the brewing process, growing and harvesting hops, sacks of malted barley, vats and barrels of beer in various stages as well as people enjoying the finished product in London pubs.
Lewis says “I always have been fascinated by how deeply rooted alcohol is within the British culture. After this exhibition I’m planning to do a series of paintings of pubs to explore this subject matter further.”
His works reveal how old practices have evolved over time, showing the importance of the lightness of touch of a skilled and experienced craftsman (or woman), that cannot be replicated by machine. While many of his works relate to brewing there are also some showing gun manufacture, leading to the exhibition’s title, Beer and Guns, and paintings showing the process of making handmade shoes and umbrellas.
Katie Sheasby, Operations Manager at Howling Hops Brewery describes a painting by Lewis Hazelwood-Horner of her colleague, a brewer, at work as “a beautiful celebration of the otherwise unseen and little acknowledged hard work undertaken every day by a really humble craftsperson - especially as Gianmaria was brewing in the basement of the Cock Tavern so was literally out of sight and underground!”
She also found “something very timeless about both the process of painting and the process of brewing, which I think really came through the finished piece - it could have been 100 years ago as easily as it was 2015! It also captures a unique time within the beer world when the more ‘old fashioned’ labour intensive processes of brewing, rather than the larger scale more industrial ones, are enjoying a revival.” |
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