‘Æppel’
Tristan Barlow
Oil on Linen
180 x 160cm
2021-2026
Blue Shop Gallery presents
Tristan Barlow
‘Æppel/Orange’
6th - 29th May 2026
PV 6th May 6-8pm 2026
72 Brixton Road, Oval SW9 6BH
Gallery opening hours: Thu - Sat | 12pm - 5pm or by appointment hello@blueshopcottage.com
Æppel / Orange pulls an organic, chthonic power from the roots of visual reverie, creation, growth, pattern, myth and life, all examined through painting that is neither figurative nor abstract, but rather generative and becoming.
Fruit-like forms take shape in shallow spaces; shapes move like smoke in viscous twists and folds. Confetti-like pieces of colour float, unsure where or not the laws of gravity have yet been spoken into being, while other pieces coalesce or grow from a substrate of light. Large in scale, intimate in tonality and surface, sensual and mysterious in form and shape, these paintings are slow to unfold. They rebel against the prevailing image and attentional culture that has become so fast and frivoless, where scale is most often experienced in the palm of one's hand and images consumed in the thousands; these paintings ask you to move around and take in the physicality and shifts in color and edge, to sit a while, to allow your eyes and mind to wander.
The paintings in the main gallery contain a luminosity that works its way out from the surface of these paintings, recalling glimmers of Venetian tonality. Smaller shapes build amorphic, larger shapes with Florentine lines playing between positive and negative spaces, while the colors and framed spaces echo Bauhaus color theory. Texture, gesture and agitation are kept to a minimum to create paintings that hold a quiet stillness. The paintings embody a cerebral space, which feels familiar but otherworldly and intuitive, where thoughts remain preverbal and primordial. The paintings hint at a world coming into being, taking form and shape. Patterns, colours and relations grow and emerge like a skewed reflection of the natural world or a world nascent in its creation; a dream world as it slips through your fingers.
Downstairs, Barlow allows paint to function much more on the planar surface of painting where energy is drawn from mark making, texture, materiality, and exists in a compressed space. This group of paintings function within a language of drawing: gestural, searching and open. Marks are made in relation to the body and movement. The open brush marks carry with them joy and anxiety, tradition and irreverence. These paintings rest in an equilibrium where it is unclear whether form is being created or torn apart.
Barlow’s paintings are crafted with oil paint and pigments which lend, through depth and layers, a rich complexity of edges and colour. Each colour is individually mixed on the pallet and each shape informs the next shape to build a coherent world.
hello@blueshopcottage.com to register for catalogue.
Tristan Barlow (b. 1990 Jackson, Mississippi) lives and works in London. He received his MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London and BFA from the University of Southern Mississippi. He is represented by Anita Rogers Gallery in New York City. Tristan was awarded the Red Mansion Art Prize 2014 and the Barto dos Santos Memorial Award 2015. Tristan has been awarded residencies at the Chautauqua Institute of Art, Vermont Studio Center, and the Red Gate Residency in Beijing, China. His first solo show in London was Plane Mythos, at Blue Shop Cottage Gallery in 2020. His work has been included in the Ingram Collection: Young Contemporary Talent Award Exposition 2018, John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition in 2016, Creekside Open, Selected by Lisa Milroy in 2015, and the Red Mansion Art Prize Exhibition in 2015. In 2024 he was commissioned by the Chancery Rosewood, London to produce a body of work comprising 13 large paintings for their permanent collection. Tristan’s work is held in collections both in the UK and internationally and he is a regular visiting lecturer in drawing and painting for the Rome Art Program in Italy.
Tristan Barlow studied painting at the University of Southern Mississippi, N.Y. Studio School & at Chautauqua School of Art, NY. His Masters Degree is from Slade School of Fine Art, London. Tristan’s shows include Anita Rogers Gallery NYC & Blue Shop Cottage, London. He is a recipient of the prestigious John Moore’s painting prize & is a Visiting Artist at RAP.
Selected Exhibitions:
London Art Fair, 2026
Glydebourne Opera Collaboration, Summer Gala, Reform Club, London, 2025
Solo Show, Blue Shop Cottage, London, 2020
Duo Show, Anita Rogers Gallery, NYC, 2018
Duo Show, Anita Rogers Gallery, NYC, 2017
John Moore’s Painting Prize, 2016
Slade MFA Degree Show, 2015
‘Æppel (Floating/Falling)’
Tristan Barlow
Oil on Linen
140 x 60cm
2026