Born Bogotá, Colombia, 1956. Lives and works in London.
Alison Turnbull studied fine art for one year at the Academia Arjona, Madrid, and went on to study at the West Surrey College of Art and Design and Bath Academy of Art, Corsham.
Turnbull’s work, primarily in drawing and painting, involves a process of conversion. Found drawings – architectural plans, cluster diagrams, star charts – act as a generative starting point; these drawings are transcribed and made vivid on the abstract picture surface by colour. The biological, cosmological or architectural schemes they represent survive residually, but in a reconfigured state. In a recent exhibition at Matt’s Gallery, London, Turnbull presented work derived from star charts and observatory plans alongside paintings and drawings that explored the grid itself, without the overlay of specific structures. Her current work continues in this vein as the artist moves away from working in clearly defined series, to explore unforeseen connections.
Selected Exhibitions
2011
Rupert Ackroyd and Alison Turnbull, The Russian Club Gallery, London
2010
‘Observatory’, Matt’s Gallery, London (solo)
2009
‘Between the Lines – British Contemporary Drawing’, Trinity Fine Art, London
2008
‘Darwin’s Canopy’, Natural History Museum, London (group)
2005
‘Black Borders’, Galeriá Magda Bellotti, Madrid
2003
‘Hospital’, Matt’s Gallery, London (solo)
2001
‘Houses into Flats’, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (solo)
Selected Awards and Residencies
2010
Artist in Residence, Department of Entomology, Natural History Museum, London
2009
Gulbenkian Galápagos Artists Programme
2005
Artist in Residence, ArtSway, New Forest, Hampshire
2003
Arts and Humanities Research Board
Delmas Foundation, New York
2002
Rome Scholarship in the Fine Arts