Roy Oxlade: Art & Instinct: In collaboration with London Collective and Vortic Collect

I want authenticity, clarity and a certain peculiarity... Roy Oxlade

British artist Roy Oxlade (1929 - 2014). Student of Bomberg, along with Auerbach and Kossoff, Oxlade took his own path, evolving a form of 'real' painting that solidified his following as an artist's artist.

In 2010, aged 81, Oxlade published Art & Instinct, a book of his selected writings. His argument is often radical, but his philosophy is compelling, liberating and refreshingly sane. In 2016 Alison Jacques, in partnership with the Oxlade Estate, archived all of Roy Oxlade's paintings and works on paper and began the process of bringing Roy's work to an international audience so his often underrated voice can finally be heard in the world at large.

Oxlade's work is grounded by spontaneity and a diaristic portrayal of daily life, emphasised by frequent references to the artist’s wife, fellow painter Rose Wylie, who was Oxlade’s lifelong muse. Objects found in Oxlade and Wylie's home and studios in Kent often form the basis of his paintings: sinks, tables, lemon squeezers and coffee pots make recurring appearances alongside paint tins and easels. Selected for their aesthetic and functional qualities over any symbolic meanings; domesticity and ritual are central to Oxlade's world.

In 2019, Hastings Contemporary organised Oxlade's first UK museum survey exhibition and public collections including The Arts Council Collection have since acquired work. In 2018, Hettie Judah published an extensive feature on Roy Oxlade and Rose Wylie in Mousse magazine entitled Authentic Everyday with key publications such as Frieze, The Art Newspaper and The World of Interiors, subsequently publishing reviews and features on Oxlade.

Throughout the 60 years Oxlade painted, drawing was the fundamental bedrock on which he based his practice. Oxlade wrote It requires no special equipment, little space, you can do it on the back of an envelope...It is a time for fresh thinking about the vast expressive potential waiting to be released through drawing - by and for everybody.