Gareth Bunting

Bio

Gareth Bunting is a visual artist from the west midlands UK. He creates detailed ink paintings which deal with the relationship between humanity and nature. His work comments on issues surrounding class, wealth inequality, mental illness and climate change. He graduated with an MA in fine art from Sheffield Hallam in 2014 and has since been invited to work as artist in residence numerous times around the world, including at the Swatch art peace hotel in Shanghai, the Regents hotel Taiwan, The Pier-2 arts centre in Taiwan, Artcore Derby and the Saqacha centro del arte in the Peruvian Rainforest. Exhibitions include The New Light Art show in 2016 and 2021. Cityscape at the Cica museum, Korea in 2018, Anamorphic waves at Ugly Duck, London in 2019 and many more. He won the Signature art prize for drawing and printmaking in 2015, and continues to exhibit locally and internationally. He is currently based at Bloc studios in Sheffield.

Artist statement

Gareth Bunting is fascinated by how places and experiences exist in the mind. He creates dreamlike, sprawling, and fantastical, landscapes with his signature style of ink drawing in meticulous detail. Buntings existential 'landscape portraits' are a kind of visual diary, revealing snapshots of memories within a given space. Beginning with the autobiographical, a narrative unfolds which attempts to portray the collective unconscious of humanity and the hyper-real world we now live in. His works comment on a range of issues, from mental illness, to wealth inequality and issues around class, to broader social, political and environmental issues.

Drawing with a unique and distorted sense of scale and perspective, he investigates the impact of modern humanity on our natural landscapes in this age of the Anthropocene. He contrasts and blends together the organic, fractal geometry of nature with the mechanical and the artificial, in order to question our relationship with nature, and our responsibility in living in harmony with it. He is interested in how modern technology impacts on the self and on wider society, and the setting for his work is a peculiar blend of the virtual and the real. He explores the fallibility of memory, and juxtaposes the real and the un-real in careful compositions of contemporary and historical symbolism.

Selected for the New Light Art prize. Scarborough art gallery, Tulley House, The Biscuit factory Newcastle. Bankside gallery London. 2021

At The Cross-Junction. Solo show at PAPER II Manchester. 2020

Selected for the contemporary young artist award. Biscuit factory Newcastle. 2020

Artist in residence at Bon Volks Margate. 2019.

Artist in residence at Artcore Derby, 2019

Hard wired, touring exhibition at 4 British libraries, Bridlington, Catterick, Whitby and Chorley. 2019

Anamorphic waves, group show at Ugly duck London, 2019

Artist in residence at the Regents hotel Taipei, 2018

Cityscape, CICA museum Korea, 2018

Migration, group show at the Phoenix gallery Athens, 2018

Sacred realm between realities, The Room contemporary art space, Venice, 2018

Variations group show at the Cylinder gallery, Mayfair London, 2017

Chiayi arts festival group show, Fangliao, Taiwan, 2017

Time Travellers Memory, group show, Pier 2 art centre, Taiwan, 2017

Selected to be artist in residence at the Pier 2 art centre in Taiwan

Group Show at the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, 2017

Guest Lecturer at the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, 2017

Group show at the Half image space, Shanghai, 2017

Solo exhibition at the Tokyopan gallery in Shanghai- March 2017

Artists of the future show at the DegreeArt gallery London, 2017

Selected for the Imaginary Worlds Art prize- 2016

New Light Art show at the Bowes museum, Durham/York- 2016

Finalist at the HIX award show in London- 2016 

Group show at the DNA space at the cool docks, Shanghai- 2016 

Solo show at the Swatch art peace hotel in Shanghai-2016 

Artist in residence at the Swatch art peace hotel in Shanghai- 2016 

Artist in residence at the Xochi Quetzal residency in Mexico- 2015 

Artist in residence at Saqacha Centro del Arte in Peru-2015 

Castillo del lamas in Peru, group show- 2015 

The Manchester Contemporary art fair-2014/2015 

Sluice art fair in New York-2015 

Winner of the Signature art prize for drawing and printmaking in 2015

20-21 Visual Arts Centre in Scunthorpe, group show-2015 

Millennium Galleries Sheffield, ‘Fabricate’ group show- 2014 

Graduated with a 1st class hons MA in Fine art from Sheffield Hallam- 2014

I am represented by DegreeArt galleries in London and the Paper Gallery in Manchester UK.