Sholto Blissett
Present Tense
27 January – 28 April 2024
Somerset
About the Artist
Sholto Blissett (b. 1996, Salisbury, UK) lives and works in London. He read Geography at Durham University before studying for an MA in painting at the Royal College of Art, London.
Blissett is known for his fictional landscape paintings depicting architectural follies set in rugged landscapes. At the center of his work is a preoccupation with humanity’s frequent desire to distinguish itself from the rest of nature. Dualisms such as humans and nature, culture and wilderness, and history and biology are challenged in his work. No people are portrayed in Blissett’s work, instead buildings or suggestions of buildings mark their presence. Classical follies coalesce with trees and rocks, or are formed of them entirely, suggesting a blurring of the assumed boundaries between humans and nature. Inspired by the view that humans cannot escape nature and that we never exist beyond its bounds, Blissett paints uncanny worlds where humans are neither free in a state of Arcadian bliss, nor exist in opposition to nature, but are simply and undeniably connected to it.
Blissett’s solo exhibitions include: ‘Rubicon,’ Alexander Berggruen, New York NY (2023); and ‘Ship of Fools,’ Hannah Barry Gallery, London, UK (2022). Selected group exhibitions include: ‘Colnaghi New Masters – Sholto Blissett x Hubert Robert,’ Colnaghi, London, UK (2022); ‘Manscaping,’ The Hole, New York NY (2022); ‘Lost at Sea,’ The Artist Room, London, UK (2022); ‘The Natural World: Part II,’ Alexander Berggruen, New York NY (2022); ‘Sholto Blissett, Emma Fineman, Madeline Peckenpaugh,’ Alexander Berggruen, New York NY (2021); ‘Utopia,’ Peres Projects, Berlin, Germany (2021); ‘Tree and Leaf,’ Hannah Barry Gallery, London, UK (2021); ‘Down in Albion,’ L.U.P.O, Milan, Italy (2021); ‘The Earth, That is Sufficient,’ Nicola Vassell, New York NY (2021); and ‘Rites of Passage,’ Unit London, London, UK (2021).
