Tony Bevan is one of Britain’s leading figurative painters. Coming to prominence in the 1980’s, with a series of solo exhibitions at galleries including Matt’s Gallery and the ICA,  Bevan paints visceral, graphic images of the human form. Comparable to Francis Bacon or Lucien Freud in intensity, Bevan’s paintings often dwarf the viewer with their physical scale and their exploration of masculine vulnerability and strength. Characterised by heavy black or red outlines, his paintings have become increasingly possessed with darker emotion, expressed through an increasingly economical palette.

The exhibition at Matt’s Gallery will be his first British exhibition since his major one person show at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1993. Although figurative in nature the new painting possesses the qualities of a landscape.  Using different shades of black and white, the directness of Bevan’s mark-making gives the new work an earthy, intimate quality. Gestated over 18 months and specially conceived for the gallery space, Bevan will dominate the gallery with a single monumental painting measuring 10 foot by 20 foot, promising to make the exhibition a dramatic return to British audiences.