Mary Ramsden (b.1984 North Yorkshire, England) previously studied at University of Edinburgh. Her practice is unapologetically painterly.
Strategically refusing referential readings, she makes painted objects whose compositional unity belies the complexity of their making. Implicit here is a tension between the conflicting actions of ‘doing’ and ‘undoing.’ The work oscillates between meditative relationships created predominately through the cancelling of previous marks, and bolder pieces in which vividly hued asymmetrical forms dominate the surface. This antagonistic give-and-take extends to the method of their making.
Working on the floor, from a position of control, Ramsden negotiates the pictorial plane as a zone of impact, working with resistance until the point at which the dynamic conflicts of the work’s making are calmly resolved.
Born: 1984 in London, England, United Kingdom
RA Schools student from 2010 to 2013
Gender: Female
2016 Mary Ramsden: (In / It), The Aspen Art Museum, Aspen
2015 Swipe, Pilar Corrias, London
2012 Mary Ramsden, Pilar Corrias, London
2010 Atticsalt Gallery, Edinburgh
2017 Pera Museum, Istanbul
2016 Salon Sebastian Monteux at Glasgow International 2016, Glasgow
2015 ‘I was once Lonelyness’, Blain|Southern, Berlin – DE
Art Now: Vanilla and Concrete, Tate Britain, London
Studio_Leigh, Studio_Leigh, London
The London Open 2015, Whitechapel Gallery, London
I am here but you’ve gone, curated by Milovan Farronato with Stella Bottai, Fiorucci Art Trust, London
Tan Like That, curated by Martin Rasmussen, Queens Crescent, London
2014 Panda Sex, curated by Tom Morton, State of Concept, Athens
Shakti, Brand New Gallery, Milan
New order II: British art today, Saatchi Gallery, London
2013 Consommé, Kinman, London
Open Heart Surgery, The Moving Museum at The Vinyl Factory, London
2012 Making Familiar, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin
From New Perspectives, Marcelle Joseph Projects
2011 Laurence Kavanagh, Simon Mathers, Mary Ramsden, Damien Roach, Cally Spooner, Pilar Corrias, London
2010 The Moving Gallery, Newcastle
Purity is Myth, Pilar Corrias, London
Future Phase, The Arches, London
Rag Factory, Brick Lane, London
Group show, Open Eye Gallery, London
2009 Kunskog, Five Hundred Dollars, London
Bilateria, Five Hundred Dollars, London
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London
New Contemporaries, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
Best of British, Swinton Park, Yorkshire
20 Years, Leith Gallery, Edinburgh
2008 Student Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
Point of Delivery, Slade School of Art, London
Ausgang, Edinburgh College of Art
2007 The Lomellini Family, Minto House, Edinburgh
Works on Paper, The Prince of Wales Drawing School, London
2006 Patina, Atticsalt Gallery, Edinburgh
2005 The Art of Care, Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh
Cornucopia, Atticsalt Gallery, Edinburgh
Group Show, Red Door Gallery, Edinburgh
Young Turks, Atticsalt Gallery, Edinburgh
2013 Dunoyer de Segonzac Prize
2012 Solomon J Soloman Prize
2009 Carnegie Travelling Scholarship
2008 Sir William Gillies Bequest Award
The George Jackson Hutchinson Memorial Award
2007 Andrew Grant Bequest Award