Derek Hill, an RCA-trained practitioner from northeast England, has an impressive history of public engagement. He founded the Art Studio in Sunderland in 1986 and served as its artistic lead for 26 years before relocating to his current studio in 2012.
Hill’s work, titled “Flaw”, was first exhibited as a solo show at the Myles Meehan Gallery in 2009 and later as “Flaw: The New Work” at the South Hill Park Arts Centre in 2011. From 2016 to 2022, he was the artist-in-residence at the Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology (CBCB) at Newcastle University, where he focused on researching and developing artworks. The piece created for “Hidden Kingdoms: Shifting Worlds” was displayed at the CBCB in both 2018 and 2022. A portion of this collection is available for viewing by appointment at the CBCB.
Hill’s first solo exhibition, titled “Victory and Defeat”, opened in 1983 at the Imperial War Museum in London. This exhibition featured several etchings and drawings, including the etching “Victorious and Defeated” (view it here: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/13013
Additionally, photographs from “Flaw: The New Work” at the South Hill Park Arts Centre are available on their Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.466661434861.252735.56652329861&type=3.
Flaw, reviews and editorials: a-n.co.uk: https://archive.a-n.co.uk/tag/south-hill-park-arts-centre/page/2/.
Derek Hill received widespread acclaim for his groundbreaking work at the Art Studio, earning praise from The Daily Telegraph and the Association of Business Sponsors for the Arts. In 1996, Arts Council England and the City of Sunderland commissioned the installation book for the Visual Arts UK Initiative. His artwork has been showcased in major cities such as London, Oxford, Glasgow, Paris, and Belgrade, and it is held in both private and public collections, including the Imperial War Museum in London. He has been featured in national publications like the Telegraph, the Observer, the Arts Council’s “96 from 96”, the Arts Review, and Flash Art International, an online magazine.
Julie Revell, Head of Exhibitions, invited Hill to present a solo exhibition of paintings from his ongoing project, “Flaw”, at the Myles Meehan Gallery of the Darlington Art Centre in 2009/10. The second show in the series, “Flaw: The New Work,” was curated by Dr Outi Remes, the Visual Arts Director at South Hill Park Arts Centre, and took place a year later in 2011 in the Bracknell Galleries. (See exhibition images and reviews below.)
For more information on “Flaw”, visit https://www.derekhill.co.uk/work/cat/flaw/. Notes on his current development in 2024 can be found at https://www.derekhill.co.uk/current-paintings-2024/, and you can see his current paintings at https://www.derekhill.co.uk/work/cat/current-paintings/. Additional resources include his book at https://www.derekhill.co.uk/work/item/book/?cat=84, awards at https://www.derekhill.co.uk/work/item/awards/?cat=84, reviews and exhibitions at https://www.derekhill.co.uk/reviews-exhibitions/, and information about the Art Studio at https://www.derekhill.co.uk/work/item/the-art-studio/?cat=84.
A quote about Hill’s work comes from J. Millard, a former manager of Liverpool and Newcastle Museums:
“Derek Hill works like an alchemist. His studio is a magical place where he conducts his experiments. It is a cavernous roof space with alcoves and wooden stairways on every side. Overhead is a tangle of huge wooden beams with occasional fluttering pigeons, and in the centre is a great irregular space. Paintings are everywhere—they are slotted in rows into every alcove, covering the floor with sheets of polythene. Between them are pots and tools, leaving little room to walk.
Derek’s alchemy involves making combinations from his remarkable storehouse of materials and applying his immense array of techniques. His images are drawn, poured, and painted in a meticulous sequence of actions, balancing chance and control. Some of his canvases resemble microscopic biological processes magnified to a massive size, while others depict vast geographical processes confined to just a few square feet. They are lucid and mysterious, generous and intense, majestic and, literally, wonderful.
Since 2016, Hill has been developing a series of paintings centred on the theme “Shifting Worlds,” a project that is still in progress. A collection of his paintings is currently displayed at the CBCB at Newcastle University’s Baddiley-Clark Building, with viewings available by appointment. A recent set of paintings and films was exhibited in the public forum of the building in 2022. For reviews, see “When Art and Science Collide” and “Big and Small”. Contact reception for viewings at https://www.derekhill.co.uk/open-now-hidden-kingdoms-shifting-worlds-exhibition-baddiley-clark.
http://www.derekhill.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/FLASH.docx.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEaXqBBNmccqIWlSfvFIDI9xU
https://www.ncl.ac.uk/cbcb/about/engagement/
