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Artworks
Humphrey Ocean
Now You See Me, 2020Oil130 x 161 x 8 cm£54,000Further images
Royal Academician Humphrey Ocean describes his work as often referring to ‘our alluringly unnatural world’. He spends much of his time ‘with an eye on local habits and the way the human mind adapts and reveals itself’.
Royal Academician Humphrey Ocean describes his work as often referring to ‘our alluringly unnatural world’. He spends much of his time ‘with an eye on local habits and the way the human mind adapts and reveals itself’.
Driving, cars and road-signs are recurring interests in Ocean’s pictures. Drawing inspiration from the world around his home and studio in South East London, the curves of Ocean’s ‘boy racer’ cars relate to the silhouettes of his paintings of post-war rooftops and orange skips; all familiar markers of suburbia. Ocean has made a number of paintings and prints of cars in vibrant hues in recent years. This car looks different. For Ocean ‘it has happened by stealth; this is how the world has changed in my lifetime, what it has become…’
Ocean has exhibited his work widely since his first major solo show in 1984 at the National Portrait Gallery, London. He has also exhibited at Tate Liverpool, the Whitechapel Gallery, London, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London and most recently, with a solo show at Sims Reed Gallery, London. In 2018. A major monograph was published by the Royal Academy of Arts of his work in 2019 and his work is held in many notable collections including the British Council and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
He lives and works in London.
