Edward Bell

Edward Bell studied graphics at Chelsea and photography at the Royal College of Art and upon leaving he was ‘adopted’ by Vogue and did much magazine work.

Pushing the confines of photography by various manipulations, (tearing, tinting, tracing and montage) led to a successful new career as an illustrator. After a few years however, the straightjacket of commercialism was shed by ‘dropping out’ and living in Florence and Venice, where his eyes were opened to ‘Art’.

He still enjoys portraiture (his Scary Monsters album cover portrait of David Bowie was an icon of its time) but left to himself never tires of the nude as a subject, never fails to be inspired by landscape. The next step he is considering is perhaps to marry the two whilst experimenting with legibility to the knife edge of abstraction.

This is Edward’s first London show for several years and marks a return to the spotlight after a period of refreshment in rural Ireland where he began a series of small landscapes reminiscent of Constable’s Cloud studies; he continues these from his current base in Shropshire. These bucolic scenes are a counterpoint to his nudes which, by contrast, are flamboyantly graphic and erotic mixtures of different styles and sources with a strong contemporary feel.

Installation Views