Narbi Price: The Lockdown Paintings' Publication

Narbi Price is a painter and winner of the Contemporary British Painting Prize 2017. He has also been featured in Vitamin P3: New Perspectives in Painting. His work explores specific sites through photography, which is then translated into paint, focusing on the abstract, formal and painterly qualities of the image. During lockdown, he depicted a series of benches from all over the country, which he is now planning to produce as a publication.

"The COVID-19 lockdown changed things for everyone, not least for artists who are still adjusting to new ways of making work in different circumstances. For me, this meant a change to a smaller, more domestic scale, as the studio was out of bounds. It involved a change in medium, and focused on small watercolours that I could make more easily at home.

​My process shifted as I noticed friends posting pictures online of benches enrobed with red and white hazard tape, preventing the benches being used for that which they were intended. The result was a kind of three-dimensional calligraphy, the tape wrapped around the bars and planks of the benches, a casual quotidian rhythm making marks in space, different on each bench, like a Poundshop Christo.

I gave friends instructions on how to compose source photographs for me, and this became a chance lockdown collaboration, between the unknown worker who wrapped the benches, my friends who photographed them, and myself who painted them. All working in isolation. These paintings developed into a large body of work and proved to be very popular.  I think they captured something of the surreal quality of lockdown, and spoke of the COVID zeitgeist. All works went directly to collectors as they were completed, without ever being exhibited, or even all being under the same roof at the same time.

My lockdown paintings established a new way of working as an artist, and feature different bench scenes, from all around the UK, wrapped up with hazard tape to stop people using them during the crisis. The paintings were sold as part of the Artists Support Pledge initiative, and so were never publicly exhibited. I plan to publish a fully illustrated catalogue featuring 40 of the paintings, accompanied by a short introductory text by myself and an exclusive new essay by the acclaimed writer, broadcaster and film maker, Michael Smith."

You can view more of the paintings and support Narbi's Kickstarter campaign here. You can also connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. 

CuratorSpace are currently featuring articles by artists, curators and organisations who want to share their experiences of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, whether that is artists using their practice as a way of exploring new boundaries of isolation, or as a way to connect more broadly with their communities. We are also interested in hearing from curators and organisations who are offering support to artists and audiences during this time.

Contact us at louise@curatorspace.com to share your story.
 

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