On the up
Contemporary artists we're tipping for success...
Laura Oldfield Ford
For some years now London-based Laura Oldfield Ford has enjoyed a growing reputation as author of cult zine Savage Messiah, a powerfully written, cut-and-paste excursion into London's psycho-geographic hinterlands.
Like Savage Messiah itself, Oldfield Ford's paintings and drawings focus on a medley of visual and psychological territories: the marginalised and over-privileged, a certain East End cityscape, a particular zeitgeist.
While her work is clearly political, it's far removed from the heavy-handedness of art that's trying too hard to make a point. Instead, Oldfield Ford engages through sheer figurative skill combined with a teasing, caustic wit and subversive sense of play.
While theoretically at odds with the art world's commercial status quo, Oldfield Ford manages to write her own rules and in so doing, hauls a feisty defiance into the gallery space. No mean feat, and little wonder that she's starting to command collectors' attention as thoroughly as she commands her visual terrain.
January 2007
limited edition prints and multiples
further articles
Further articles
