LONDON.- Marlborough Fine Art presents the work of Jonathan Lux, winner of The Valerie Beston Artists’ Trust Prize 2014, in ‘A smile from across the room’.

The Valerie Beston Artists’ Trust was established in 2006 on the death of Miss Valerie Beston, a former director of the gallery, to support artists at the beginning of their careers. The charity is collaborating with the Royal College of Art to award an annual prize to a postgraduate student selected from its degree show. The prize comprises a studio for a year at SPACE, a financial contribution towards materials, tutorial support generously provided by the RCA, and an exhibition at the end of the year. Catherine Lampert and Pilar Ordovas have kindly selected the winner of the prize.

Lux describes his work as, “Paintings that begin as reorganisations of memories and my environment, with an interest in subduing the edginess of the real to the influence of my personal prerogatives and idiosyncrasies. Thematically they occupy a territory somewhere between pleasure and mischief.”

The paintings evolve from quick sketches in small A5 sketchbooks done daily as he travels on the tube around London. He is interested in the relationship between this spontaneous process and its opposite, the hard-won image. The resulting oil paintings may change radically in progress. Lux’s subject matter includes references to popular culture, nostalgia and play, combining real and fictional elements. The enjoyment of his subject matter is apparent in his use of vivid colour and varied texture.

Jonathan Lux was born in 1976 in Bluefield, West Virginia, and now lives and works in London. He received his MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in 2014. He has had a number of solo exhibitions in the USA and was included in Saatchi New Sensations 2014.