HENRY GLOVER (1997) IS A LONDON BASED PAINTER AND CERAMICIST WHO WON THE SAATCHI ART ‘RISING STAR’ AWARD IN 2020, NAMING HIM AS ONE OF THE TOP 35 ARTISTS AROUND THE WORLD UNDER 35 YEARS OLD. GLOVER HAS EXHIBITED HIS WORK ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND HIS WORKS ARE IN PRIVATE COLLECTIONS ACROSS THE WORLD, RANGING FROM AMERICA TO EUROPE AND SOUTH KOREA.
Glover graduated from Wimbledon College of Arts in June 2020 with a BA (Hons) Fine Art: Painting, and has been actively exhibiting since, including his debut solo exhibition ‘Take Me Somewhere Nice’ at Liliya Art Gallery March/April 2021. Most recently Glover exhibited in the group exhibition Checkmate with OHSH Projects.
Glover is an oil painter and ceramicist. He focuses on the interplay between the physical sensations of his materials and the raw emotions Glover experiences in his daily life and personal relationships. He is concerned with shared feelings of introspection that have arisen in recent years and proven to catalyse the impacts of rumination and loneliness on the soul. Glover draws upon the early Mediaeval period, Antiquity, Folklore and Myths in providing subject matter steeped in history, and drama, transforming it into our contemporary everyday. Glover finds a freedom of expression by utilising iconography and maintaining his own motifs with a rich background in often Romantic and aggrandised contexts.
In painting Glover uses drawing mediums such as charcoal or soft pastel to bring an immediacy and honesty to the work. He will also use text to provide a voice to the paintings, often taking lyrics from songs. These words are contemplative and abstract but always contrast the ethereal or dreamlike imagery. The ceramics' physical presence along with the paintings creates a theatre for the viewer to explore and immerse themselves in. In this way Glover hopes to create an experience that assimilates his own in making the work and imagining these epic and often imaginary narratives. By simultaneously working in either media Glover creates a territory upon which his work exists in, the paintings help to define the sculptures and vice versa. Glover’s method is physical, clay and oils have this integrity unlike other plastic media. The tactile qualities feel as close as one can get to moulding another body and the experience of touch.