Anthony Wilkinson is pleased to present Des Lawrence’s solo exhibition ‘A Murder of Crows and an Exaltation of Larks,’ a group of new paintings - his first exhibition with the gallery. Lawrence is best known for his ‘Obituary Paintings,’ a continuous series primarily inspired by newspaper obituaries. Often featuring a portrait of the deceased or a symbolic object linked to their lives and legacies, all created from found images, blending personal history with artistic reflection.
Obituary Painting: Peter Zinovieff, 2025 is a detailed depiction of the British Inventor’s synthesizer paying homage to his pioneering contributions to electronic music. In Obituary Painting: Paco Rabanne, 2025 the1960s dress captures the innovative spirit of the legendary fashion designer the ‘enfant terrible’ of the fashion world in the 1960’s. Obituary Painting: Jane Birkin, 2025 celebrates not only Birkin’s legacy as an actress and style icon, but also the famous Hermes bag named after her. These works are referential, even fetishistic in their attention to the detail of an object or person. They evoke a vision of the past through the idealised style of promotion shots used in advertising.
“I’ve always liked to think of my “obituary paintings” in a tradition of Icon painting” Lawrence says. For this show he has made this thought explicit in a series of works using imagery closely associated with medieval religion, probably the highpoint of Icon making. They are images of objects, just like the other contemporary subjects in the exhibition. Saint Anastasia, 2025 (a Christian saint of martyrs and deliverer of potions), Saint Constance, 2025 (a historical figure whose name became associated with a medieval legend of a young, martyred Christian with leprosy) and Saint Stephen, 2025 (the first martyr of Christianity). By incorporating imagery of religious relics - such as reliquaries (which often had the remains of an object the Saint had touched within them), the uncanny realism of their realistic polychrome finish and the themes of mortality and veneration resonate with the artists other works. They also marry the artist’s painterly engagement with realism and the historical tradition of Icon painting.
Lawrence’s artistic process involves transforming a chosen subject into a finished painting through a series of stages, beginning with an initial drawing from an image/photograph that he edits by simplifying or adding complexity. He then creates multiple detailed hand-cut stencils, which serve as templates for layering paint via spray techniques and brushwork to build up the image. The finish is hard edge, smooth, flat but also painterly reflecting his meticulous and methodical approach to painting. In these new works, Lawrence employs acrylics and oil, transitioning from his earlier use of enamel paint.
Des Lawrence Studied at the Glasgow School of Art (1988-92) and Goldsmiths College, University of London, (1994-1996). British School at Rome, Italy. Abbey Scholarship in Painting (2004-2005). Selected exhibitions include: 2023 Castor Gallery (Solo). 2019 White Cube (Solo). 2018 The London Open, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (Group). 2012-13 To Hope, to Tremble, to Live, Work from the David Roberts Collection, Hepworth Wakefield, UK (Group). 2006 Until it Makes Sense, Drawing as a Time Based Medium, Seventeen Gallery, London, UK and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France (Group). 1994 Modern Art, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, UK (Group). New Art in Scotland, CCA Gallery, Glasgow, touring to Aberdeen Art Gallery,UK (Group). BT New Contemporaries 1994, touring exhibition (Group). His work is in collections of National Gallery of Victoria, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo,Turin. The David Roberts Collection. Wordsworth Trust. Donaukurier, Munich. Collection of Jay Joplin Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody