I make paintings of fictive spaces which have the potential to appear as architecture, but in a way that is isolated, and slightly out of reach, as if seen through half closed eyes or glanced at quickly. I think of them as daydreams; they appear insubstantial, simultaneously suggesting imminence and disappearance, and offering an escape from the weight of the object world.
The paintings explore the interplay between the illusion of real space, the grid, which often exists as a fragment, and the surface and structure of the support. The flatness of the surface and the limits of the painting are brought into play by the use of a frame, and a shallow space, which operates almost in relief. Through the use of layers, repetition, and uncertainty, space is negotiated and time is gradually accumulated.
Recent exhibitions:
2020, Phase IV Intersections- Art/Architecture, Greenwich
2020, A Little Painting Show, Leeds
2019, Phase III Le Modulor, Galerie HLM, Marseilles
2019, Typologies, Cambridge
2019 Painting the In-Between, Leeds
2018 Emergence, Air Gallery, Manchester
2018 Paint North, Leeds
2017 NoFormat Gallery Open, London
2017 Air Gallery Open, Manchester
2017 Jackson Art Prize winner, Air Gallery
2017 Bankley Gallery Open, Manchester
2017 Small World, PS Mirabel, Manchester
2017 Painting [Now] Studio One Gallery, London
2016 Lost and Found, Grimsby 2016
2016 Utopia/Dystopia, Bath 2016
2016 Scarborough Prison Drawing Project
2014 April Virgoe & Chris Lillywhite: Disrupt Continuous Readings, 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe and University of Teesside
2014 Stuft all over Again Group exhibition, Red Gallery, Hull
2012 Critical Impact , University of Hull
2011 Palimpsest animation at Lightworks International Festival, Grimsby
2010 Frequency Drift Abbey Walk, Grimsby
2010 Frequency Drift, Red Gallery, Hull
2004 Stuft: Group show, Red Gallery, Hull
1998 April Virgoe Recent Paintings, The Gallery, Poole Institute
april virgoe 