Simon Ling was born in 1968. He studied at Chelsea College of Art & Design and then at the Slade School of Art in London. 

Ling produces richly textured oil paintings on canvas which focus in on details of both urban and natural landscapes, often littered with the detritus of human lives. The tight angle and slight distortion with which the works are framed, causes a sense of disorientation in the viewer, making it impossible to grasp senses of scale or context. 

Like other painters of his generation such as Tomma Abts, Gillian Carnegie and Glenn Brown, Ling’s work reflects and exploits a tension between the represented image and its material construction through paint. Ling paints both in the open air and in the studio from constructed tableaux of everyday objects such as fruit, food, carrier bags and plastic boxes. 

In Untitled (2013), Ling's subject is an anonymous shop font in an average street. The absence of signage, candy colours and warped perspective bring a sense of intense subjectivity to a nondescript scene. Ling draws our attention to the way in which our experience of the world is made specific by the way we move through it, his vision is more physical; as he puts it, ‘it is a question of how you see something, not what it is.’ 

Exhibitions include Painting Now: Five Contemporary Artists, Tate Britain, London (2013); Head Wig (Portrait of an exhibition), Camden Arts Centre, London (2009); Clouds of Witness, Islington Museum, London (2005) and John Moores Exhibition, Liverpool (1991). 

More at http://www.greengrassi.com/Artists?aid=15

Glossary

  • Canvas

    A piece of cloth woven from flax, hemp or cotton fibres. The word has generally come to refer to any piece of firm, loosely woven fabric used to paint on. Its surface is typically prepared for painting by priming with a ground.

  • Contemporary

    Existing or coming into being at the same period; of today or of the present. The term that designates art being made today.

  • Design

    The arrangement of elements or details in an artefact or a work of art.

  • Oil

    A medium in which ground pigments are mixed to produce a paste or liquid that can be applied to a surface by a brush or other tool; the most common oil used by artists is linseed, this can be thinned with turpentine spirit to produce a thinner and more fluid paint. The oil dries with a hard film, and the brightness of the colour is protected. Oil paints are usually opaque and traditionally used on canvas.