Alexis Harding
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Since the mid 1990’s Alexis Harding has subjected painting to a singular physical strain.

His work emerged as an antagonistic and unruly take on abstract painting in the 90’s and has developed into a wider practice that explores and celebrates the intersections between abstraction and representation. In its use of painterly time-based material and the reinvention and appropriation of various organising principles, it has sought out new areas for painting. One of the most innovative and driven makers of his generation, Harding’s practice over the last 20 years has aimed to reinvigorate the possibilities of abstract painting.

“I use an ordinary language of abstraction to begin with and then aim to fundamentally change it; over time the painting moves and changes on its way to an image and compositional position. It will then continue long after I have stepped away from it. Contingency, control, chance and cancellation are at the centre of the conditions in making these works.

Each painting is subjected to a specific painterly behavior where I am able to slow the making of a painting right down and then make incredibly quick decisions within this durational time-span. The long drying time is there to allow ideas and the world IN.

There are many processes and approaches to make a painting that occur simultaneously in the studio and I tend to work in series that overlap, where the paintings direct and ask me to move from one to the next and back again; they are in a continual state of formation and change where my role is to guide them. The movement, fracture and disruption of the wet surface is dynamic, bodily, entropic and continually generative”.

The work has been shown Nationally and Internationally since 1995. Harding was the winner of the 2004 John Moores Prize for painting in 2004.


2025
20 YEARS / 20 SECONDS, Luca Tommasi Arte Contemporanea, Milan.
2025
Wiper Quad, Hunted Projects, Edinburgh
2024
20 YEARS / 20 SECONDS, Palazzo Regione Lombardia, Milan.
2021
Skin Horizon, Luca Tommasi Arte Contemporanea, Milan.
2020
Skin Deep, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Lissone, Italy
2019
ALEXIS HARDING: 60 paintings Survey Exhibition, Watson Farley & Williams, curated by Coombs Contemporary
2018
Passing Through: small selected works 2008-2018, Peninsular project space, Singapore
2017
The Extended Fiel: Mark Francis/Alexis Harding, Luca Tommasi Arte Contemporanea, Milan.
2016
Stirrings Still, Luca Tommasi Arte Contemporanea, Milan.
2015
Robert Combas and Alexis Harding, H2M-Espace d’art contemporain, Bourg-en-Bresse.
2013
Alexis Harding In Progress, Nunnery Gallery, London.
2012
Fill Line, Platform A Gallery, Middlesborough, UK.
2012
Long Room Drying Depot, Two Rooms Gallery, New Zealand.
2012
Substance and Accident, Mummery + Schnelle, London.
2011
Tondos and Bi-Products, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin.
2011
Clockwise Stoppages, Gallerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart.
2009
Bi-product Depositories, Mummery + Schnelle, London.
2009
Broken Lines, Galleria Marabini, Milan.
2007
Depthplunge, Mummery + Schnelle, London.
2006
New Paintings and Sculpture, Verein allerArt, Bludenz, Austria.
2006
Skins, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin (catalogue).
2004
Marella Arte Contemporanea, Milan.
2003
Painting by the skin of your eyes, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London (catalogue).
2002
Rubicon Gallery, Dublin (catalogue).
2002
Galerie Katharina Krohn, Basel.
2001
Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon.
2000
Andrew Mummery Gallery, London.
1998
Alexis Harding Solo Show, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London (catalogue)
1998
Banjaxed!, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin.
1997
Project Room, Galerij S65, Aalst, Belgium.

2025
24 hour around, Painterly Prints, Way Out East Gallery, selected by Alexis Harding
2025
Gutter Habit, Alrexis Harding/Emma Roche, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, Ireland
2024
Color, Wave, Turbulence, Tension Gallery, Penge London
2024
What Presence, Luca Tommasi, Milan
2023
Not only….But Also, Way out Gallery, londoin
2022
Soft Air, Filet, London
2020
Cuts, Matthiesen Gallery, London (curated by Alexis Harding)
2020
Royal Academy Autumn Show, London
2019
Skin Deep: Alexis Harding, Daniel Sturgis, Sean Shanahan. Antonella Cattani, Bolzano, Italy
2019
Substantifs, Arthouse1 gallery, London
2019
Stairway to Heaven, Watson Farley & Williams, Curated by Coombs Contemporary
2019
Tribute to Leonardo, Luca Tommasi, Milan
2019
Fully Awake 4.6, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh
2018
Premio Lissone, ‘Premio MAC’, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Lissone, Italy
2018
FLOW, OBS Gallery, Kent
2018
Surfaced: painting and materiality in the screen environment, Thames Side Studio, London
2017
Show your process , curated by Paul Carey-Kent, Bazalgette Room, the House of St Barnabas, London
2016
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly , curated by Alex Gene Morrison & Kiera Bennet, Charlie Smith, London.
2015
Forgetting the Future: Entropy in the reflective age, Torrance Art Museum, CA, US.
2015
Tondo Time, UEL Gallery, selected by Alexis Harding.
2015
Remember, St John church, Bethnal Green, London.
2015
Fall of the Rebel Angels, Venice.
2015
Contemporary British Abstraction, SE9 Container Gallery, London.
2015
Borderline (beyond a rationale aesthetic), C&C Gallery, London.
2015
Real Painting, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester.
2015
Playpaint, Second Floor Studios, Woolwich, London.
2014
Colour: Move!, Galerie Renate Bender, Munich.
2014
l.A-London, Mind the Gap, Autonomie Gallery, L.A.
2014
Faszination Fabre, Kunthaus Fursten Feldbruck, Germany.
2014
Royal Academy Summer Show 2014, UK.
2014
Somewhat Abstract, Nottingham Contemporary, UK, curated by Alex Farquarson.
2014
Student/Tutor Survey, The Miller, London.
2014
Straddle the line, APT, London.
2014
Group Show, Mummery+Schnelle Gallery, London.
2014
H project Space, Bangkok, Transition Gallery, London, Usher Gallery, Lincoln.
2013
Painting Two, Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
2012
Solo presentation with Gallerie Hollenbach at The Solo Project, Basel.
2012
1/2 Cut, The Lion and Lamb, London.
2012
Painting: Pulled, Stretched, Revealed, SumarriaLunn Gallery, London.
2012
Turps Banana, Vigo Gallery, London.
2012
Malerie: Painting as object, Transition Gallery, London, touring to Newcastle.
2012
Royal Academy Summer Show, Royal Academy, London.
2011
Absorbency Retreat, AVA Gallery, University of East London, London (curated by Alexis Harding).
2011
Material Worlds: Contemporary Art Society Auction, Victoria House, London.
2011
Model Vs Reality, Fold Gallery, London, selected by Alexis Harding.
2011
What If It's All True, What Then?, Mummery + Schnelle, London.
2011
Royal Academy Summer shows, London.
2010
Solo presentation with Gallerie Hollenbach at Art Karlsruhe.
2010
Royal Academy Summer Show, Royal Academy, London.
2010
LAYERS, RETROSPECTIVE, John Moores Painting Prize Show, Seongnam Art Centre Cube Gallery, Seoul, South Korea.
2010
Non-identical abstraction engine, ACME Gallery, Los Angeles.
2010
Exhiibitionism: The Art of Display, Temporary Wet Painting No 11, Courtauld Institute, London.
2010
Collecting the New: Recent Acquisitions to the IMMA Collection, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.
2009
Supersurface FX, Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart.
2009
The Path of Most Resistance, OCAD Professional Gallery, Ontario, Canada.
2009
Getting Nowhere, Galleria Gentili, Prato (curated by Lorenzo Bruni).
2009
Turps: Part One, Galleria Marabini, Milan, (curated by Marcus Harvey & Peter Jones).
2009
Turps: Part Two, Galleria Marabini, Bologna, (curated by Marcus Harvey & Peter Jones).
2008
…same as it ever was: Painting at Chelsea 1990-2007, University of the Arts, London (curated by Clyde Hopkins).
2007
British Painting, Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart.
2007
Strange Geography, Kingsgate Gallery, London.
2007
Paint, Two Rooms Gallery, New Zealand.
2007
Driven, Fieldgate Gallery, London.
2007
Painting in the Noughties, Letterkenny, Ireland.
2006
Linda Aloysius, Alexis Harding, Warren Neidich, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London.
2005
The Red Carpet, Kunst in Schloss Untergröningen, Untergröningen, Germany.
2005
About Painting II, Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart.
2005
Controlled, Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, Bury St Edmunds.
2005
Alexis Harding and Andrew Bick, Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart.
2005
Alexis Harding and Peter Lynch, Galerie Katharina Krohn, Basel.
2005
Remarkable, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London.
2005
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London.
2005
Tower of Babel, LAF, London .
2005
Time Share, Eagle Gallery, London.
2004
Painting as Process: re-evaluating Painting, Earl Lu Gallery, Singapore (curated by Eugene Tan).
2004
Works on Paper, Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart.
2004
In the Time of Shaking, IMMA, Dublin.
2004
John Moores 23: exhibition of contemporary painting, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (Winner of the First Prize).
2002
The Image in Use, Künstlerhaus Palais Thurn und Taxis, Bregenz, Austria.
2002
Andrew Mummery@Collective, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh.
2002
Shimmering Substance, Arnolfini, Bristol, and Cornerhouse, Manchester.
2002
The Day I Had No Cigar, Platform Gallery, London.
2002
Last Chance to Paradise, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London.
2002
Prima Facie, Angles Gallery, Santa Monica.
2001
Showcase: No. 5, Courtauld Institute, London.
2001
British Abstract Painting 2001, Flowers East, London.
2001
Sue Arrowsmith, Maria Chevska, Alexis Harding, Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart.
2001
Croma, Galerie Kröhn, Badenweiler, Germany.
2000
Painting in Europe: different perspectives, Premio Michetti 2000, Francavilla al mare (Chieti), Italy (Curated by Gianni Romano).
2000
Pump House Gallery, London (with Mali Morris).
2000
British Art: Not Enough, VELAN, Turin. Curated by Victor de Circasia.
2000
Colour Codes, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin.
2000
Movin’ On Up (Part I), Andrew Mummery Gallery, London.
1999
Super-Abstr-Action, The Box Associati, Turin and Les Filles du Calvaire art contemporain, Paris.
1999
John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 21, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
1999
Bick, de Goede, Harding, Heath, Simpson, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London (catalogueGalerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart).
1999
Galerie Tanya Rumpff, Haarlem, The Netherlands.
1999
Fantastc Overload, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin.
1999
Hoxton New Music Days exhibition, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London (with Maria Chevska and composers Deirdre Gribbin & Peter Wiegold.
1998
Still, (curated by Jenefer Winters), Laurent Delaye Gallery, London.
1998
first eleven, The NatWest Art Prize (short-listed artist), Lothbury Gallery, London.
1997
Stepping Up, Andrew Mummery 33 Great Sutton Street, London.
1997
Finish, Spacex Gallery Exeter (with Ian Davenport/Jason Martin/Jane Harris).
1997
John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 20, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
1996
Small Truths, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton. Touring to Todd Gallery, London; Leeds City Art Galleries and Northern Gallery for Contemporary Arts, Sunderland. Curated by Nick de Ville and Jill Sheridan.
1996
Die Yuppie Scum, curated by Martin Maloney, Karsten Schubert Gallery, London.
1996
Wet Paint, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin.
1996
New Contemporaries '96, Tate Gallery Liverpool and Camden Arts Centre, London.
1996
Nine Lives, Alternative Arts Space 26 Chiltern Street, London.
1996
ART96 London Contemporary Art Fair, exhibition curated by Andrew Mummery.
1996
Painting, Alexis Harding/Yinka Shonibare, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.
1996
Loaded, curated by Terry Shave, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (with Victoria Morton, Richard Wright, Cathy Wilkes, ……,……,…….).
1995
Group Show, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.
1995
Multiple Orgasm, Lost in Space Gallery, London.