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Simon Gales (artist)'''

Simon Gales is a contemporary representational artist and painter of limited output who destroys much of his work. He exhibits mainly in London and lives in France.

Biography

Simon Gales was born in Suffolk in 1964 and graduated from Goldsmiths College in 1988 acheiving the highest 1st degree in a year that included most of the prominant YBAs including Gary Hume, Michael Landy and Ian Davenport. Six works from his degree show were selected along with Bold text25 others across the nation to be auctioned at the Royal College of Art by Christies the following year. The first ever auction of new contemporaries by a major auction house attracted media attention and Gales’s works were featured in the Telegraph Weekend Colour Supplement as well as the BBC 1 o’clock news, the auction surpassed expectations making an astonishing £1/4 million, Gales’s selling for over 4 times the estimate. This led Gales to be commissioned by London Transport for whom he painted «Childhood» a painting London Underground used to publicise the V&A Museum of Childhood at Bethnal Green by making 6000 full sized posters of the image for underground stations with a further 3000 smaller ones for the escalators.

Despite being one of the few representational graduates from Goldsmiths he was included in a number of largely conceptual exhibitions such as « A Spiritual Dimension » in 1989, a major touring exhibition organised by Peterborough Museum along with Goldsmiths tutors Brian Falconbridge, Michael Kenny and Carl Plackman and including Craigie Aitcheson, Tess Jaray and Bob Law and supported by works from the Arts Council Collection as well as that of the Royal Academy. Due to the small scale of Gales’s works at this time he was invited again from 1991-2 to join Craigie Aitcheson in another touring exhibition this time curated by Gillian Jason called « Cabinet Paintings » which also included Frank Auerbach, Howard Hodgekin, Euan Uglow and Sarah Raphael.

Gales had a series of solo exhibitions at The Bruton Street Gallery in Mayfair in 1999, 2001 which sold out and again in 2003 at which point the gallery closed down. He showed at The Albemarle Gallery in 2008 before moving to Jonathan Cooper in 2009 with whom he has remained.

Gales has often referred to himself as an image maker, his priority being the power of the single image presented as a frozen moment or simple statement. Latterly he has produced a series of works called Focus/Unfocus in which there is varying focus within an image in order to alter its perception. The series was exhibited in London at Jonathan Cooper, Park Walk Gallery in February 2011.

Selected Exhibitions

FOCUS/UNFOCUS – JONATHAN COOPER – 20 PARK WALK LONDON	2011 ART CHICAGO – JONATHAN COOPER FINE ART – CHICAGO, USA 	2010 ALBEMARLE GALLERY – SOLO EXHIBITION – 49 ALBEMARLE STREET, LONDON	2008 10th ANNIVERSARY SHOW, ALBERMARLE GALLERY, 49 ALBEMARLE STREET, LONDON	2006 BRUTON STREET GALLERY - SOLO EXHIBITIONS - 28 BRUTON STREET, LONDON	1999 – 2001 -2003 TEN BRITISH ARTISTS EXHIBITION - WATERMAN FINE ART, JERMYN STREET, ST JAMES'S, LONDON	1995 CABINET PAINTINGS - GILLIAN JASON GALLERY, LONDON	1991-92 CHRISTIE'S - MODERN ART SINCE 1945 - AUCTION - SOUTH KENSINGTON, LONDON	1991 INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR - JILL GEORGE GALLERY, LOS ANGELES, USA	1990 SUSPENDING THE TIME - SIMON GALES & BRIAN FALCONBRIDGE, JILL GEORGE GALLERY, LONDON	1990 CHRISTIE'S - NEW CONTEMPORARIES ART AUCTION - THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART, LONDON	1989 A SPIRITUAL DIMENSION - TOURING SHOW OF UK, THE ARTS COUNCIL OF GREAT BRITAIN	1988 - 89 NEW REALISTS - BERKELEY SQUARE GALLERY, BRUTON STREET, LONDON 	1988