Wildlife artist of the year

Interesting exhibition at the Mall Galleries showing the best entries in the Wildlife artist of the year competition.

I found a lot of work in this show a bit generic and 1970s in feel. It was being shown with some prints by David Shepherd and you realised just how influential he had been in this field and how artists were still imitating him. Don’t get me wrong I quite like his work but I don’t want to see a whole show of other people doing it.

However there were some great works usually when people let go of the style and allowed themselves to be more artistic. I loved the four sculptures called “Ghost Dogs” by Simon Grififths which were so expressive and just strolled through the viewer’s ignoring them as they went. I also liked  “Clear a path” by Nick Onell a picture of a shark scattering a school of fish in a gold ocean.

Most amazing of all were Rohan Chhabra’s sculptures using hunting jackets to make animal trophies such as a rhino head. A nice comment on the hunting of wildlife plus a really zany art work.

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