Between The Flowers

Samuel Bassett (b. 1982, Cornwall, UK) lives and works in the county of Cornwall, where he grew up in a family environment of fishermen, miners and farmers, a visible cultural heritage that is seen throughout his works.

His first approaches to art were through abstraction and British modernism (from the 40s to the 60s) whose works (Feiler, Hilton, Lanyon, among others) he discovered as a teenager, walking by the town, seeing them through the glass of the galleries of St.Ives, where this recognised colony of artists were based.

He studied Illustration at the Bournemouth Arts Institute, but before that he was already “committed” to painting, already making and exhibiting works. In 2009/2010 he held his first solo exhibition in Cornwall and gradually he was connecting with other practices of the artistic world such as curatorship, Lecturing, exhibitions and projects.

Influenced by his environment, Bassett’s works explore nature from human perception. With a self-referential, intimate and panoramic language, his paintings and sculptures reflect local cultural identity elements, sometimes becoming a visual metaphor for the landscape.

The prominence of blue on the canvas represents his connection with the sea, and, although he also uses other colors such as red, ocher or black, his work is distinguished by wavy blue brushstrokes in ephemeral movements. Through various techniques and materials such as acrylic and ink, the form appears between juxtaposed layers and drawn elements.

Bassett has made solo shows at various renowned galleries such as Galerie Kornfeld, Berlin (2018), Anima Mundi (2019) and Vigo Gallery, London (2021). He has participated in international art fairs such as Untitled (2018, 2020) and CODE art Fair (2018). His paintings are part of important private and public collections in the U.K and beyond; and they have been used in many different contexts including public art projects and for public art galleries in the UK.