Alan Rankle born in 1952 is an artist and curator whose work explores historical, social and environmental issues informed by his interest in the evolution of landscape art. Since his first exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts London in 1973 while still a student at Goldsmiths College, he has worked variously in painting, video, photography, printmaking, architectural intervention and curating, through a series of international exhibitions and commissions.
His work was featured in the 2017 Southampton City Art Gallery exhibition and book, Capture the Castle showing landscape artists from Turner to the present day. 2018 saw the presentation of two major commissions Not Dark Yet for the Grand Hotel in Nuremberg and Prague Suite for Intercontinental in Prague.
Alan Rankle’s works are featured in museum, corporate and private collections worldwide including: Southampton City Art Gallery; Hastings Museum & Art Gallery; Gallery Oldham, Manchester.
Alan reimagines discarded materials, transforming mechanical salvage, retired tools, and found objects into dynamic forms, exploring themes of nature, fantasy and mythology. His artworks transform the discarded, everyday and overlooked and elevate them into the extraordinary.
Each piece is meticulously assembled, often concealing all methods of construction within the work itself (a process which is counterintuitive, as well as time consuming), capturing movement, character, and presence, with a sense of power and elegance. The interplay of industrial components and organic forms creates a tension between past function and newfound artistry.
There is a larger story behind Alan’s work, which has been shaped for over 30 years of dedication and a distinctive artistic vision. With followers and collectors worldwide, and public artworks in the UK and overseas, Alan has earned a reputation as a globally renowned sculptor.
Fundamental to Alan’s work, is challenging perceptions of waste while fostering a deeper connection between the viewer and the natural world.
ARATUS I And II are part of a series of seven works which are inspired by the inbound and outbound journey of the tide. TIDE is about a landscape at your feet, and how the relentless movement of the tide reveals and conceals the surface of the coast.
I am a process-driven painter, endlessly curious about what image-making can reveal about life as matter. I use the painting state to be in relationship with the object of creation itself. I only want to know what art can gift us once the artist has left the building and any notion of ‘saying something’ has been left at the door. Why is it, that paint applied in total freedom will reconcile into a painting? I believe the work of an artist is to mature their relationship with art, through the act of making. Nothing more. Art belongs to a context distinct from all other pursuits in that it transcends the person doing it. Or at least it should. The further I have moved away from illustrating, elucidating, describing, or consciously generating aesthetic value, the greater the content of my work. It’s a curious paradox, both timeless and infinite. Through painting, I have come to believe the following, and these are the tenets that underpin my work:
- Painting is a collaboration between truth and form that reveals itself to the artist like a secret, whispered.
- Painting translates experience into a two-dimensional plane unbound by words but somehow more real, for its residual freedom.
- Painting feels like remembering something that hasn’t happened yet, an uncanny sense of yes.
- Painting occupies a fleeting state, referencing the ancient while riding the flux.
- Painting is a state in which I can bathe in my aesthetic consciousness, playful and timeless.
