Exhibition: Ross Watson @ The Gallery, London

The big bonus of working in Shoreditch is that I get to pop out to exhibitions in my lunch break. Today I visited The Gallery at 50 Redchurch Street to see the new Ross Watson exhibition.

I have to confess, the main reason I wanted to visit this exhibition was to see one picture – the crowning glory of the exhibition:

Stephen Fry (after Vermeer, 1670)

The wonderful Stephen Fry is, of course, the star of this picture. The ‘King of Twitter‘ (with 4,822,845 followers at the time of writing), sits clutching his iPad with an intriguing expression on his face. Has he been interrupted while composing a Tweet? Or is he thinking about the scene behind him, in which a young girl receives a letter she most probably had to wait weeks for. In this spectacular picture, Watson makes a comment on today’s technology, and the way in which we are now communicating. Fry, in his eyes alone, adds his own thoughts.

If this had been the only good picture in the exhibition I wouldn’t have minded but, as it turned out, they were all absolutely gorgeous! Here’s a selection:

Untitled 18/09 (after van Ruisdael, 1670)

Untitled 19/09 (after Caravaggio, 1596; featuring Marco Da Silva)

Untitled 04/11

Untitled #05/11

I do heartily recommend checking out the exhibition for yourself though, if you’re in the area, as the pictures look even better in real life.

Ross Watson was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1962. He has exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions since 1984, including important surveys of Australian and international contemporary art at the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, and in the Toronto and Melbourne International Art Fairs.

Ross Watson’s exhibition, which is in aid of the Terrence Higgins Trust, is open until 7th October 2012, 11am – 7pm (closed Monday). For more about the artist, please visit: www.rosswatson.com.

The artist, Ross Watson, who kindly let me waffle at him about how much I liked his work. Thank you.