gina parr - artist
 
 


 

Gina Parr was born in Exeter, Devon in 1957. While studying for a Fine Art Degree, her work developed from Painting to Performance Art. In 1979 she gained a First Class Honours Degree and in the 80’s was very active in producing Performances in galleries and art spaces and lecturing in Art and Design. After further study at Chelsea College of Art she moved into Set Design for Television and has enjoyed a highly successful 27 year long career, creating a huge variety of stages and studio sets across many genres. Always approached with a painterly eye, her Production Design credits include Shooting Stars, Goodness Gracious Me, The Brit Awards, The Royal Variety Performance, Mercury Music Prize and many major B.B.C. Sports Events. She has lectured and mentored in Art and Design and Design for Television and most recently has started a working relationship as an Artist with Ravenscourt School and Technology College in London.

In 2003 Gina returned to her first love painting. Her work is a minestrone of sources: memories of past events, childhood, family, places lived in and visited and working life; all common human experience. A country girl at heart, Gina grew up in Devon where rolling hills, wild moors and dramatic seascapes played a large and influential part in her childhood. For the past 30 years she has lived and worked in London... a long but temporary urban existence which seeps into her work. She is not interested in making faithful representations of places or events, but rather views the action of painting as making visible her inner landscape, resulting in work that is sometimes semi-abstract, sometimes abstract, often featuring growth, apertures and openings. Of her work Gina says, “The clue to the painted story is often in the title. Sometimes I use wordplay, trying to make sense of joyful or painful memories with humour, and also to reflect the theme of the primary emotional catalyst. During the course of painting, the surface colour, depth and texture grow and develop through chance happenings which I utilise when they parallel my own original intent. This process fascinates me as it also illustrates the chances and controls that are reflected in our own lives. I would like my work to convey a bold atmosphere, a mood, a scent of emotion, all of which can be read in whichever way is chosen; a trigger in itself for the viewer’s own thoughts and memories.”
Gina's paintings are in private collections both nationally and internationally.

 

Qualifications

1st Class Honours Degree in Fine Art
PGCADE
Design for Television
Lanchester Poly Coventry
Middlesex Poly London
Chelsea College of Art London

 

Solo Exhibitions and Performance Art

2009 Solo Exhibition The Coningsby Gallery London W1
2005 The Tin Drum, Dyke Rd Brighton
2005 The Garden Cafe, Four Walls Galleries
Hove
2005 The Tin Drum, James St Brighton
1981 Performance “Eat me drink me” Spacex Gallery Exeter, Arts Council Grant funded
1981 Performance “ Chocolate” “Heaven” London
1980 Performance “Walking with Ducks” Middlesex Poly London
1980 Performance “ The Line” The Drill Hall London

 

Group Exhibitions and Performance / Public Art

2010 BCAF 2010 May 14th - 16th Battersea Arts Centre
2009 Oct 22nd - Nov 5th Jelmoni Studio Gallery Milan Italy
2009 Art in Mind - Sept 1st - 14th Brick Lane Gallery London E1
2007 - 2010 Sandra Higgins Fine Art London Art for Living
2006 Mission to Seafarers London Mary Penley Fine Artists Bishopsgate London
2006 “ Bishopsgate” group exhibition Mary Penley Fine Artists Bishopsgate London
2000 Exhibition “ BBC Vision” BBC Television Centre London
1981 - 1983 Various large scale Murals Southgate, Tottenham, Streatham, Hornsey London
1981 Performing Arts Company Royal College of Art London
1981 Waterloo Sunset “ Not Enough Room...” Waterloo Gallery London, Arts Council Grant funded

 

Teaching / Lecturing

2009 - 2010 Artist in Residence Ravenscourt School and Technology College, London
2003 Television Design Consultant Turkish Radio and Television, Istanbul Turkey
1991 - 1996 Design for Television BBC Television London
1990 - 1991 Design for Television Chelsea College of Art
1988 Design for Television Nottingham University
1986 Design for Television London College of Fashion
1980 - 1983 Art and Design Southgate College London

 

Television Production Design

1996 - 2010 Freelance Production Designer for Television BBC , Channel 4, ITV
1996 Royal Television Society Design Award
1984 - 1996 Television Production Designer / Senior Designer BBC Design Department London
1983 Television Design Yorkshire Television, Leeds
view at www.ginaparr.com

 

Design

2005 Visualisation and Design The Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall

 

 

  biography