NEW YORK, NY.- British artist Grant Foster makes use of British Romantic Painting’s idealized depictions of pastoral settings to interrogate the role that images play in establishing and articulating our shared value systems, social norms and ideals. Subtle alterations to the subject matter disrupt our expectations of the genre and remind the viewer that tradition had a dark role as an instigator of cultural persuasion. His choice of distemper is no coincidence. The traditional form of painting points to the disturbance of the paradigms represented on his canvases.

The only sculpture in show, a wax cast portraying the visage of notorious biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Gray, brings this interrogation into the present moment. And the characters populating his canvasses take on a disembodied, schizophrenic quality. Foster’s displaced imagery explores urgent concerns, such as pluralism and the democratization of image making.

Grant Foster (b. 1982, Worthing) lives and works in London. He received a MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2012. Foster received the Leverhulme Bursary in 2010 and was a prizewinner at John Moores 25 in 2008. In 2013 his work was part of Bloomberg New Contemporaries at the ICA in London and at Spike Island, Bristol. His recent exhibitions include Holy Island, Chandelier Projects, London (2014); The Walnut Tree, Chinashop, Oxford (2013), Figuratively Speaking (curated by Marcelle Joseph), Heike Moras Art, London (2015); The Threadneedle Prize 2014: Figurative Art Today (Curated by Sacha Craddock), Mall Galleries, London (2014); Rx for Viewing (with Jesse Wine), Ana Cristea Gallery, New York (2014); East London Painting Prize, Strand House, London (2014).

The exhibition is on view at the Ana Cristea Gallery from the 10th of September through the 10th of October.