Photography Akos Major

Louise Hardy’s new work, the “Transfiguration” Series, emerged directly from the bruising impact of recent personal loss and a subsequent sense of dislocation and collapse. The paintings attempt to navigate this “geography of trauma” by creating imaginary spaces, reminiscent of stage sets, upon which this temporary state is played out. Part-built, part-ruined, these luminescent, imaginary urban landscapes move in and out of focus and challenge the viewer to question at what stage of construction or dilapidation they encounter them.

Her source material comes from a wide variety of places, including a fascination with aerial photography documenting the ravages of war, natural disaster and environmental damage, brutalist architecture and the abandoned, vastly over-developed “ghost cities” of China. Taking photographic references as a starting point, Hardy’s large-scale works employ meticulously hand-cut stencils made from projections to build up multiple translucent layers. Using a lengthy process of dripping, pouring and spray-painting, the surface is constantly added to, erased and reworked, leaving a history of mark-making and experiment beneath to form a visual palimpsest. Above all, they evidence a deep-seated love of her medium, the potency of colour to convey feeling and a life-long romance with architectural form and structure.

The work is intended to be emotive, arresting and complex, evoking a sense of evanescence and fragility but ultimately, after the process of grieving has passed, one of enduring hope.

Taking photography as a starting point, a lengthy process of transparent layering follows, suggestive of archaeology: a digging away, a constant erasing and then a building back, so that traces of past marks are visible, creating a complex palimpsest mapping both time and space. The work is intended to be arresting and emotive, evoking an atmosphere of transcendence, hope and wonder.

Louise studied painting at the Ruskin School of Fine Art at Oxford University. After graduating, she was awarded a travel scholarship to spend a year working in Israel, resulting in a sell-out London show on her return. Exhibitions followed annually in the UK and overseas, alongside a successful career in film design and theatre administration.

She has been selected for many prestigious Open Submission shows including the Society of Women Artists and Battersea's Affordable Art Fair. Her work is held in private collections, both nationally and internationally, including major purchases by Reuters and the Financial Services Authority in Canary Wharf.

After two years at Morley College on its Fine Art Mentoring course, she has completed an MA in Fine Art at City & Guilds of London Art School which culminated in her final degree show in 2023. She lives in London.


SELECTED SHOWS
2023 SWA Summer Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2021 Showcase Exhibition, The Dolphin, London
2021 Summer Exhibition, Anna Lovely Gallery, London
2021 SWA Summer Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2018 SWA Summer Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2016 SWA Summer Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London

GROUP SHOWS
2023 Degree Show, CGLAS, London
2023 Interim Show, CGLAS, London
2022 Meet Me Halfway, The Art Pavilion, London
2021 For a Long Moment, Morley Gallery, London
2021 Interruptions, Espacio Gallery, London
2019 Dulwich Festival, Artists’ Open Studios
2018 Dulwich Festival, Artists’ Open Studios
2017 Brownsword Hepworth Gallery, Chelsea, London
2017 Dulwich Festival Artists’ Open Studios
2016 Gallery Borsani, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

AWARDS
2024 Artists Residency Programme: The Pouch Cove Foundation, Canada
Arad Arts Project Travel Scholarship, Israel
Art History Scholarship, Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice

EDUCATION
MA in Fine Art, City & Guilds of London Art School
Fine Art Mentoring course, Morley College, London
Post-graduate Diploma in Film & TV Design, Kingston Polytechnic
Ruskin School of Fine Art & Drawing, Oxford University: BFA
Blackpool College of Art & Technology: Pre-BA Foundation Course

COLLECTIONS    
Reuters and Financial Services Authority, Canary Wharf, London
Work in private collections: UK, Portugal, Holland, Israel, USA, Canada and South Africa