“And suddenly, with just a few simple marks, we are transported to distant lands.”
In previous bodies of work, Louise Hardy would infuse abstracted spaces with subtle silhouettes of destroyed buildings, urban spaces and aftermaths, grafting layers of information onto one another, subtly suggesting troubled topographies. Linguistically, this earlier methodology ushered in something which she has been developing ever since: networks of lines, zones of tone or pigment and instinctively placed glyphic marks, gathering into occasional frenzies of information. But where she was previously suggesting destruction, Hardy’s process seems now to be that of formation or amalgamation, primordial even. Occasionally the logic of space, borrowed from actual source material, is drafted or even stencilled into a painting, acting as an antagonist: something to be immersed in subsequent gestures and dressings of paint, something to be built upon, contradicted or redacted.
Recent visits to Hardy’s studio reveal intense and prolific groupings of drawings and paintings in various sizes and on a variety of surfaces. Perhaps informed by a muscle memory developed while laying out the complex perspectival territories of her earlier works, these are more dynamically rendered. Lines intersect with the logic of spatial suggestion, but they mass and tangle without the burden of physics and representation. These nests of gesture often coalesce, sitting on top of light, kinetic sweeps of colour, where Hardy corrals them. They take on weight, moving from punctuation to chorus. Composition is key. Hardy sometimes segments a painting or drawing with layers of pigment but often it is her kinetic marks which, herded together, occupy cleverly allocated parts of the picture plane.
Hardy’s is a formal process; one which owes a debt to the legacy of abstract expressionism. Her studio is a reflective and contemplative place. Activity upon activity leads to activity. She is relentless and critical, using a morning’s work to ask key questions for the afternoon. Repetition and a focus on material process means that whole groups of paintings and drawings lead one another into orchestrated development. As such, minute but crucial variations in intent and outcome result in unique and intricate artworks. They are produced in groups, chattering with one another, but viewed individually reward us with slow looking. Formally they are confident and sit solidly, making space for themselves, but on approach they shift and buzz. We are compelled to untangle them. Hardy refers to the noise in the work as a type of “synaptic crackling”. Perhaps, when she is this focused, consciousness gives way to instinct? One can experience her works as acts of performative, energetic making, or concede to become enchanted with their detail on an atomic level.
Reece Jones, Artist and Lecturer
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London-based artist Hardy studied painting at the Ruskin School of Fine Art at Oxford University. After graduating, she was awarded a travel scholarship in Southern Israel, resulting in a sell-out London show on her return. Exhibitions have followed regularly in the UK and overseas, alongside a successful career in film design and theatre administration.
After two years at Morley College on its Fine Art Mentoring programme, she completed an MA in Fine Art at City & Guilds of London Art School graduating in 2023 with Distinction. Two art residencies followed, one in Newfoundland and the other in Southern Spain, exhibiting the resulting work in a successful group show in London in 2025. She took part on the year-long TURPS Banana Off-Site Mentorship Scheme, followed by a return to the Spanish residency earlier this year. Her long-anticipated solo show takes place this summer at 155a Gallery in London, who featured her work at the London Art Fair in January 2026.
Her paintings are held in private collections, both nationally and internationally, including major purchases by Reuters and the Financial Services Authority in Canary Wharf.
SOLO SHOWS
2026 Until Finally From Somewhere, 155a Gallery, London
2024 Moving On, Astor Theatre, Deal, Kent
2018 Traces of the City – New Work, Gallery Maison Bertaux, Soho, London
2017 Gallery @ Romeo Jones, Dulwich, London
2017 Look mum no hands! Old Street, London
2015 Jumping for Joy, The Studio, Eastry, Kent
2015 Cadence Performance Ltd, South London
2014 Gallery @ Romeo Jones, Dulwich, London
SELECTED SHOWS
2026 London Art Fair, 155a Gallery, London
2025 The Director’s Cut, Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair
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
2025 Off/Centre, TURPS BANANA, Peckham Safehouse, London
2025 FOUND|LAND, The Morley Gallery, London
2023 Expressions of Judaism, Kent House, Knightsbridge, London
2023 MA Degree Show, CGLAS London
2023 Interim Degree Show, City and Guilds of London Art School
2022 Meet me Halfway, The Art Pavilion, London
2021 For a Long Moment, Morley Gallery, London
2021 Interruptions, Espacio Gallery, London
AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
2027 Artists Residency Programme: Morvan, France
2026 Artists Residency Programme: Joya:AiR, Velez Blanco Spain
2024/25 TURPS BANANA Off-Site Mentoring Programme
2024 Artists Residency Programme: Joya: AiR, Velez Blanco, Spain
2024 Artists Residency Programme: The Pouch Cove Foundation, Canada
Arad Arts Project Travel Scholarship, Israel
Art History Scholarship, Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice
EDUCATION
2021-2023 Masters in Fine Art, City and Guilds of London Art School (Distinction)
2019-21 Fine Art Mentoring Course (2years): Morley College, London
1985-86 Post-graduate Diploma in Film and TV Design, Kingston Polytechnic
1982-85 Bachelor in Fine Art Degree, Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford
1981-82 Pre-BA Art Foundation Course, Blackpool College of Art & Technology
COLLECTIONS
Reuters and Financial Services Authority, Canary Wharf, London
Work in private collections: UK, Portugal, Holland, Israel, USA, Canada and South Africa
Portrait photography courtesy of Frederic Aranda