May 2026

Tristan Barlow
'Æppel/Orange'

6th - 30th May 2026

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 colour 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 colour 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.

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.

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Blue Shop Gallery | 72 Brixton Road, Oval