Willoughby Gerrish is pleased to present 'Native', an exhibition of new paintings by Robbie Fife, made in 2023.
The exhibition marks a return to Fife's native land, having moved back to North Yorkshire in 2022. His previous show with the gallery - 'Locals' - focused on those people in his village that maintained a life connected to the land, featuring gardeners, dowsers and metal detectors, albeit painted from afar. This new body of work has brought the artist back in close physical proximity with the place that inspires him; the majority of the paintings having their roots within roughly a 6 mile radius of the artist's home. This shortening of distance has had a grounding effect, with elements of the natural world taking greater precedence than before. Butterflies and moths, owls and corvids, feathers and horns, hedges and henges have all come to the fore. They are the realities and keepers of the magic of this part of the world, where true power and wonder emanate from. Making them the heart of the paintings has been a way for Fife to connect more closely with this aspect of the world around him, resulting in a heightened awareness of these phenomena. He gives the example that if you start keeping bees, you will begin to see swarms in greater abundance than you previously had (if ever); when you draw your attention to an occurrence in nature it seems to manifest more frequently.
Fife's observations generally occur whilst out walking his dogs or pottering around the house and the garden. For example, when out looking at a particular patch of dead sunflowers, he noticed, about 40 yards away, a crow chasing a barn owl until the former made contact with its adversary, the battle lasting the length of the field. Painting these subjects then becomes a way of musing on them further and showing reverence. Sometimes they are built into clearer narratives and at other times they remain more of an enigma, but rarely do they remain naturalistic.
Fife shifts these entities into his lexicon via a painting process that holds little value in any hierarchy of materials, with work ranging from acrylic and coloured pencil on paper to oil on canvas being given equal standing. This varied and experimental approach to material keeps the artist on his toes, creating moments of pleasant surprise and useful problems to fix during the making. Fife is comfortable with the hesitation and tinkering in his practice as it often gives the paintings a patina and sense of endurance that is only achieved through time, labour (and a little anxiety). He believes that the work more often benefits from his obsessive reworking than not, with each new mark or erasure also creating the potential for a new narrative or meaning.
The making of 'Native' has been and continues to be a way for Fife to reconnect and better understand his home environment - a crucial feedback loop spiralling between inspiration and awareness. In his 'Ways of Nature Study' (1923), Paul Klee wrote, "for the artist, communication with nature remains the most essential condition", this exhibition, for Fife, is a rekindling of that idea.
Robbie Fife (b.1988 Harrogate, UK) lives and works in North Yorkshire. Fife completed an MFA in Painting at The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London (2014) and has twice been an artist-in-residence at The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Connecticut, USA (Nov/Dec 2015) and Carraig-na-gcat, Ireland (Sept 2019). Selected recent exhibitions include Locals, Willoughby Gerrish, Jermyn Street, London (solo, 2022); Kist, Oliver Projects at 155a Gallery, East Dulwich, London (solo, 2021); Without You My Life Would Be Boring, Staffordshire Street Studios, London (2020); Used For Glue, Studio 2, Staffordshire Street Studios, London (2019); Odds, The Other MA (TOMA) at Royals Shopping Centre, Southend (2019); Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2019); 9 Artists: Thin House, Peckham, London (2018); Nightswimming, LLE at Mission Gallery, Swansea, Wales (2018); Sightseers, g39, Cardiff, Wales (2018); ODDS, Studio 7, Assembly Point, London (2017); Outhouse, May Project, London (solo, 2016); Robbie Fife, Paulina Michnowska, Jacopo Natoli, News of the World, Deptford, London (2015).
