Still Alive – an exhibition of contemporary still life paintings by members of the Federation of British Artists – will show an eclectic selection of still lifes, ranging from the realist to the abstract, all of which utilise form and texture, colour and tone, to convey the extraordinary essence of ordinary, everyday objects.

The still life - a work of art depicting inanimate subject matter, from fruit and flowers, pots and bottles, and well beyond - has a long history, stretching from the present day as far back as Greek and Roman civilisations.

The still life was particularly popular throughout the Renaissance when it was used significantly in religious painting, and with seventeenth century Dutch painters where it often conveyed a person’s wealth, mortality, or both simultaneously. At the end of the nineteenth century, with the advent of Modernism, it became a starting point for abstract experiments. The still life has never ceased to captivate the attention of artists and audiences alike.

Still Alive, an exhibition of contemporary still life paintings by members of the Federation of British Artists at the Mall Galleries, is proof aplenty that the genre is as alive and well in the twenty-first century as it ever has been.

Perhaps the enduring appeal of the genre owes to the fact that, to quote Professor Anthony Savile, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at King’s College London: “through [still life] pictures … we find in our everyday domestic surroundings a delicacy and tenderness that we would otherwise quite miss.”

A specially commissioned essay by Anthony Savile will accompany the exhibition.

Mall Galleries
The Mall (by Trafalgar Square)
London SW1 United Kingdom
Ph. +44 (0)20 79306844
info@mallgalleries.com
www.mallgalleries.org.uk

Opening hours
Daily from 10am to 5pm