Tony Heywood – Beauty Spot at FAS London

28th January 2009

Beauty Spot, Tony Heywood's latest horticultural-based art installation, suggests that our experience of nature is becoming distant as is it increasingly mediated through television, film and magazines.

Tony Heywood

Beauty Spot invites the audience to walk through a cartoon-like landscape before encountering grotesquely distorted micro-landscapes in bell jars. These Victorian style miniatures are packed tightly with crystallized bonsai trees, anthracite, bejewelled sculptures and tattooed micro-organisms. A series of three short 'scratch garden' videos provides the link between these two worlds.

The works in Beauty Spot reveal a complex and painstaking artistic process: Heywood makes multi-media collages of imaginary landscapes, photographs them and then cultivates living horticultural environments based on the images. These environments provide a theatrical set on which performances take place. The performances - which usually involve the destruction of the garden - are filmed. Cuttings from the films provide inspiration for the intricate micro-landscapes in bell jars. The installation, Heywood's second solo show at FAS, represents the artist's desire to stamp his own mark on our changing perception of landscape:

"In our multi-media world, nature is frequently portrayed in a grossly exaggerated, often highly perfected manner and I wanted to describe, and occasionally ridicule that desire for bucolic perfection - the visual equivalent of lounge music." Tony Heywood

In an integrally related sideshow Heywood presents his latest colour-field video paintings of choreographed poured-paint, inspired by herbaceous flower borders.

Heywood's large-scale, living and dying garden art installations have been generating rising interest since 1999. In his last exhibition, Unfinished Symphony (2007) alongside artists such as Jake & Dinos Chapman and Gavin Turk, Heywood presented a glass case with a sculpture of a scaled 1950s New York Skyscraper inside containing a time bomb of rare seeds. In SuperAlgal Bloom (2006) Heywood presented a floating exhibition on the Serpentine in Hyde Park of giant bejewelled forms based on the minutiae of algae and plankton. These sculptures formed his first exhibition Shimmer at FAS by way of installation on the front gardens of the Tate.

Former Head Gardener for the Hyde Park Estates, Tony Heywood now works in a studio beneath Platform One Paddington Station where he creates and cultivates his garden installations. Recent awards and commissions include, Cork European City of Culture (2005) Belfast Botanical Gardens, Chaumont International Experimental Garden Festival France, Future Gardens Award (2009).

Beauty Spot: Tony Heywood 18 March - 7 April 2009.

FAS, 148 New Bond Street, London W1S 2JT [T] +44(0)20 7318 1895 [E] tc@fascontemporary.com [W] www.fascontemporary.com Open: Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 10am-1pm Tube: Green Park, Bond Street, Oxford Circus.

click here for the latest Art News Headlines

back to the top of this page

20\|21 International Art Fair - Jean-Patrice Oulmont, AR Penck, Gay Hutson, Gitl Braun	The third 20\|21 International Art Fair takes place at the Royal College of Art from 19 - 22 February 2009. It will be opened by Griff Rhys Jones at 12 noon on the 19th...	9th February 2009
Stephen Verona Exhibition at Tria Gallery	a unique exhibition of the art of Stephen Verona; including his paintings, life sized cut outs and unique photographs, including those selected from the...	2nd February 2009
Tony Heywood – Beauty spot at FAS London	Horticulture's answer to Damien Hirst? Beauty Spot, Tony Heywood's latest horticultural-based art installation, suggests that our experience of nature is becoming distant as is it increasingly mediated through television, film and magazines...	28th January 2009
Earliest Opera in English - Erismena acquired by the Bodleian Library	The Bodleian Library has been able to save for the nation Erismena, the earliest surviving score of an opera in the English language. The acquisition has been made possible thanks to the generous...	21st January 2009
Laura Kikauka at Spacex	Spacex is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in the UK of Canadian artist Laura Kikauka. Kikauka has been exhibiting installation work, electro-mechanical sculpture, and performing since the early 1980s...	21st January 2009
Invisible cities - Katie Pratt and Roger Kelly	Invisible Cities is an exhibition curated by artists Katie Pratt and Roger Kelly. The works in the exhibition are by a mixture of nine established artists who...	9th January 2009
Peter Blake - The Venice Suite at Paul Stolper	Venice provides inspiration for a series of twenty brand new prints by the father of British Pop Art Peter Blake...	9th January 2009
Attitudes of Magnitude, paintings and linocuts by Carri Skoczek	Brooklyn, New York, Ch'i Contemporary Fine Art is proud to present Attitudes of Magnitude, Carri Skoczek's second solo show at Ch'i...	9th January 2009
Kennington Kids arrives at City Hall - Dulwich Picture Gallery	Rough and raw, but it is, above all, brilliantly artistic. Any London commercial gallery would be foolish to turn down a chance of showing such talent...	9th January 2009
Keith Coventry: Copper and Silk at Paul Stolper Gallery	Paul Stolper presents Copper and Silk by Keith Coventry, one of the Young British Artists who exhibited at the Royal Academy's definitive Sensation exhibition...	7th January 2009
Dirty Little Pictures exhibition: John Stoddart	The second exhibition, separated by a staircase, which opens on the same night two hours later, is a revealing collection of photographic portraits taken of porn stars and the...	7th January 2009
HRH The Duchess of Cornwall becomes Patron of The Fan Museum	The Trustees of The Fan Museum Trust, Greenwich, are privileged to announce that Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall has graciously accepted to be Patron of...	7th January 2009
Jerwood Sculpture Prize 2008 Shortlist - Thomas Cox-Bisham, James Capper, Susan Forsyth, Alex Frost	The Jerwood Charitable Foundation is delighted to announce the short list for the Jerwood Sculpture Prize 2008...	27th November 2008
Eaton Terrace Gallery - Janina Tafelska - Gill - Hester van Weingarten - John Gill	Eaton Terrace Gallery launches its Winter Exhibition featuring 3 expatriate artists from France. The exhibition will run until 24th December. The main contributors are...	27th November 2008
Coskun Verbier - Pop Art and the Alps - Warhol. Wesselmann . Indiana . Wesselmann . Ramos . Hirst	Coskun Verbier confirms its position as one of Europe's leading Pop Art dealers with an exhibition 20TH CENTURY POP – a group of works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Indiana, Tom Wesselmann, Damien Hirst, and Mel Ramos in their gallery in the Swiss Alps...	27th November 2008
Melissa Scott-Miller winner of the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize	Melissa Scott-Miller was announced by Ken Howard RA as the winner of this year's Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize. The winning painting (pictured) is a detailed view of the urban landscape from an Islington park...	20th November 2008
Saving the earliest Opera in English for the nation - Bodleian library	Oxford, 19 November 2008 – The Bodleian Library is appealing to the public to help raise £85,000 until 6 January 2009 to save for the nation Erismena,the earliest surviving score of an opera in the English language...	20th November 2008
Largest ever Scottish art auction - McTear's Auction Galleries	Scotland's largest ever public exhibition & auction of Contemporary Scottish paintings is being staged at McTear's Auction Galleries in Glasgow 13th -22nd November. The Scottish ContemporaryArt Sale – 2008 is a brand new event with a stunning collection of work by many of Scotland's most popular professional artists. With nearly 450 individual paintings, it's the biggest known event dedicated exclusively to the work Scottish professional painters...	20th November 2008
Daiwa foundation art prize	The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation is delighted to announce a new and innovative art prize introducing British artists to Japan...	10th November 2008
Keith Coventry - Twenty year retrospective - Copper and Silk	Keith Coventry's association with the YBA movement of the 1990s is more to do with generation rather than approach to practice...	10th November 2008
Garry Fabian Miller - Time Passage	Since 1985 Fabian Miller has worked exclusively within the darkroom, producing camera-less images, each a unique product of an event, for which there is no negative. His images are created by a long process of exposing light directly onto photographic paper through organic materials and substances such...	5th November 2008
Michael Andrews' famous Soho Colony Room Mural sold	A complete mural from the famous Soho drinking den the Colony Room by Michael Andrews sold for £38,400 at Lyon & Turnbull's Modern and Contemporary Art and Design sale in London on September 27th 2008...	22nd October 2008
Sun K Kwak's latest exhibition, 'Times Composed'	Brooklyn, New York, Ch'i Contemporary Fine Art presents Times Composed, Sun K. Kwak's signature medium of expression masking tape drawings, are meditative studies of the surrounding environment, a dialog between the spiritual and natural forces that we struggle to reconcile culture-wide. On the surface, the installations are beautiful melodic drawings containing rhythms and momentum resembling improvisational works of art...	22nd October 2008
Realisations by Joseph Walsh at The American Irish Historical Society	Following an invitation by the American Irish Historical Society (AIHS), Irish Designer & Artist Joseph Walsh will present his first major solo exhibition of Design Art & Functional Objects in New York in October of this year...	22nd October 2008
Garry Fabian Miller Exhibition at James Hyman Gallery	James Hyman Gallery has announced that they are holding the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of photographs by Garry Fabian Miller ever staged in London...	13th October 2008
ArtSway Open 08: Call for Entries, Artists needed	This December sees the return of ArtSway's highly popular annual Open exhibition. ArtSway Open 07 saw more than 300 artists from across the UK and Europe...	29th September 2008
ING Discerning Eye Exhibition - A Decade of Decadence	Artworks for the tenth annual ING Discerning Eye exhibition have been selected for the November exhibition, which is sponsored by ING Wholesale Banking...	29th September 2008
Figuring Landscapes - ArtSway	Landscape is a vital theme through which artists have tackled issues of representation, nation and identity in both Australia and the UK. Figuring Landscapes...	29th September 2008
Artist Sun Liang – A Painter's Journey, James Hyman Gallery	James Hyman Gallery, London, in association with Contrasts Gallery (Hong Kong, Shanghai) presents the UK's first major exhibition of paintings by Sun Liang...	17th September 2008
Artist Jeffar Khaldi exhibition at John Martin Gallery	In October the John Martin Gallery will be holding the first European exhibition of the Palestinian painter Jeffar Khaldi...	17th September 2008
Francis Bacon - Mutilated Pope up for sale	Nearly 30 years ago, a porter called Ron Thomas worked at the Marlborough Gallery, London, and for Francis Bacon. He and Bacon became good friends, and Ron often did odd jobs for him around his house. During this time Ron was given a mutilated canvas by Bacon...	15th September 2008
Fan museum Collection from Castle Friedenstein, Gotha – Sleeping Beauties	Like the Sleeping Beauty, a unique collection of fans collected by Duke Augustus of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg in the early 19th century has long lain dormant at Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha, East Germany. Now the collection has come out of wraps and has now been shown in several locations in Germany...	15th September 2008
Ambra Paterno Castello - A Journey to the South East exhibition	Ambra Paterno' Castello exhibits a selection of 29 images from her photographic expedition to Madagascar and Mozambique. The exhibition entitled " Africa Within: A Journey to the South East" opens...	15th September 2008
Ambra Paterno Castello - A Journey to the South East exhibition	Ambra Paterno' Castello exhibits a selection of 29 images from her photographic expedition to Madagascar and Mozambique. The exhibition entitled " Africa Within: A Journey to the South East" opens...	15th September 2008
Floren Gallery in Poole host figurative based work	Floren Gallery in Poole will this month play host to a brand new exhibition of fantastic figurative-based work, running from Tuesday 23rd...	8th September 2008
ArtSway Associate Programme funded by the Leverhulme Trust	ArtSway is pleased to announce the launch of the ArtSway Associate Programme, funded by the Leverhulme Trust...	8th September 2008
Francis Bacon at James Hyman Gallery	To coincide with Tate Britain's major Francis Bacon retrospective, James Hyman Gallery presents an exhibition of Francis Bacon and some of the most powerful figurative artists...	4th September 2008
Jerwood Drawing Prize 2008	The Jerwood Charitable Foundation and The Centre for Drawing, University of the Arts London have today released the short list of 54 artists for the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2008...	4th September 2008
ING Discerning Eye	Each year the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition contains an imaginative and broad selection of both contemporary and traditional artists. Setting established names alongside new talent and connecting new artists...	1st September 2008

Contact | Basket

Latest article:

Pablo Picasso short biography

Pablo Ruiz Picasso was an artist, sculptor, printmaker, stage designer and ceramicist. He is widely regarded as the greatest painter of the 20th Century, and it was his revolutionary idea for a new departure in painting - Cubism - that triggered the very early awakenings of the modernist movement...