David Inshaw in new RWA exhibition
David Inshaw, Love and Death, 2000
June 25, 2019
David Inshaw features in the Royal West of England Academy’s new exhibition Fire: Flashes to Ashes in British Art 1692–2019, which is the last in a trilogy of shows to focus on the elements, following The Power of the Sea (2014) and Air (2017).
This latest show charts the different depictions of fire in British art, beginning with early proponents such as Joseph Wright of Derby, JMW Turner and John Martin. Inshaw is among the contemporary artists represented, alongside Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Susan Hiller and Cornelia Parker, and others. His particular painting, Love and Death, juxtaposes a bonfire on the edge of a cliff, with a firework exploding in the distance. This work was singled out by Laura Gascoigne, of The Spectator, when reviewing the show. Painted on the eve of the millennium, Gascoigne writes that Inshaw "was celebrating new love while simultaneously mourning the death of a close friend".
Fire: Flashes to Ashes in British Art runs at the RWA from 15 June to 1 September 2019.
