Callum Innes
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Callum Innes was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1962. After attending the Gray's School of Art (1980-84), he graduated with aPostgraduate Diploma in Art from The Edinburgh College of Art in1985.
Innes began exhibiting in the mid-to-late 1980's and in 1992 hadtwo major exhibitions in public galleries, at the ICA, London, and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. Since then he has had numerous solo shows throughout Britain, Europe and NorthAmerica, and more recently in New Zealand.
Innes is now considered one of the foremost painters in ageneration of British artists who continue to explore both thetheoretical and painterly possibilities of abstraction. His works are created through a process of addition and subtraction, and his characteristic form of monochromatic abstraction - most recognisable in his 'Exposed' series - has aptly been described as &ldquo unpainting&ldquo, alluding to Innes' subversion of the more common painterly process of building abstract compositionalelements through the gradual layering of paint and his subsequent inversion of the theoretical notion of painting as creation. In contrast to traditional methods, Innes produces key elements of hiswork not by the application of paint, but through its removal by solvents that degrade the integrity of the medium.
In 1995 Innes was shortlisted for the Turner Prize, ultimately won by Damien Hirst. In 1998 Innes won the Nat West Art Prize and in2002 he was awarded the Jerwood Painting Prize.
His work is held in numerous public and private collections including The Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Tate London, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The National Gallery of Australia, and Deutsche Bank.