Alison Harper Biography

Alison Harper Artist,  Artistic Director and co-founder¹ of The Essential School of Painting, Director The Pear Tree Open Gallery.

An exceptional multi-talented artist, Alison is a graduate of the prestigious Glasgow School of Art and is known as one of ‘The Glasgow Girls’. Alison is credited with being one of the youngest lecturers to have taught in the Painting and Printmaking departments of the Glasgow School of Art teaching there over a period of ten years before founding TheESOP in 2004.

The holder of multiple awards including the Commonwealth Scholarship, Alison has exhibited widely both in the United Kingdom and abroad. She has been the invited artist to the Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition (2016), a contributing author to ‘Drawing and Painting: Materials and Techniques for Contemporary Artists’ and the Art Consultant to the BBC ONE Show ‘The Big Painting Challenge (Series 1 & 2) and the lead for the Essential School of Painting partnership with Waltham Forest for London’s Mayor London Borough of Culture bid – Waltham Forest is London’s Borough of Culture 2019

Selected exhibitions & Awards

Invited artist to the Royal Scottish Academy annual exhibition May 2016; The National Portrait Gallery, London; The Royal Academy, London; Leicester City Art Gallery; Stirling Museum; The Boundary Gallery, London; The Compass Gallery, Glasgow; The Collins Gallery, Glasgow ;The City Arts Centre, Edinburgh; The Graphic Museum of Tokyo, Japan;  The India Today Gallery New Delhi, India and The National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi. Alison is a recipient of numerous Scholarships and awards including the Commonwealth Scholarship, Norwegian Government Scholarship, the Cheltenham Drawing Prize, Ruth Davidson Memorial Award and The Prince’s Drawing School Bursary Award. Alison is included in the following publications, Who’s Who in Art and Who’s Who of Women in the World.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Co-founder and Artistic Director – The Essential School of Painting.

2017 

Art, Art School and Art Education. BBC Radio London Jo Good Show.

BBC Art Consultant The Big Painting Challenge Series Three

2016

Royal Scottish Academy annual exhibition invited artist work shown Life of the Buddha: A modern take on the story of the Buddha

Art Consultant BBC ONE The Big Painting Challenge (Series TWO)

2015

Art Consultant: BBC One’s The Big Painting Challenge (Series One)

Art Consultant: BBC iWonder “Can a self-taught artist make it in the art world?”

Contributing Author: The Drawing and Painting Book; Publishers Thames and Hudson & Harper Collins 2015 (Chapter 14: The Human Body by Alison Harper, Art Consultant, Founder and Artist Director, The Essential School of Painting)

Education

1981- 1985 BA (Hons 1st Class) in Drawing & Painting, Glasgow School of Art. Distinction in written thesis

1984 International Summer Academy of Fine Art, Salzburg.

1985-1986 Post graduate Studies in Fine Art at Oslo Academy of Fine Art, Norway.

1993-1995 Post-diploma in Fine Art (First Class) at M.S. University of Baroda, Gujarat, India.

2001-2002 “The Drawing Year” A year of part-time study in drawing at the Prince of Wales Drawing Studio, London

Exhibitions

1984 “On the theme of Love”, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh

1985 “New Generation”, Compass Gallery, Glasgow. R.G.I., McLellan Galleries, Glasgow.

1986 Academy Student’s Exhibition, Kunstnernes Hus, Norway. National Autumn Exhibition, Kunsternes Hus, Norway.

1987 Paisley Drawing Institute, Paisley. “Day 17” Mum, Ran Out of Beans”, Glasgow School of Art. “Women Live, Inner dimensions”, City Arts Centre, Edinburgh. “Glasgow Girls”, Boundary Gallery, London.

1988 “New Generation Glasgow”, Tron Theatre, Glasgow. “The Painted Flower”, Main Fine Art, Glasgow. Glasgow Group, McLellan Galleries, Glasgow. 8th International Art Fair at Bath, with Compass Gallery. Los Angeles International Art Fair, U.S.A.

1989 The Barbizon Gallery, Glasgow. “Art Event”, Kensington, London. “Inner Visions”, Ballroom Gallery, Orkney. Paisley Drawing Institute, Paisley. “Works on Paper”, Boundary Gallery, London. “Art ‘89”, Art Fair, with the Boundary Gallery, London. “Six Women in the Air”, Air Gallery, London. 1990 “Old Now and Only Drumming” two woman show, WASPS Gallery, Glasgow. 

1991 Paisley Drawing Institute, Paisley. “Patrons Choice”, Art from the Billiard Room, Glasgow. “Glasgow Girls”, two woman show, Boundary Gallery, London.

1992 “The Religion of Art”, The Glasgow Buddhist Centre, Glasgow.

1993 BP National Portrait Competition, National Portrait Gallery, London.

1995 “Art Today”, India Today Gallery, New Delhi, India.

1996 Noble Grossart Painting Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh and Glasgow School of Art. “In Miniature”, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh.

1997 “Glasgow Girls” Boundary Gallery, London. “Venus’ Flowerbasket”, 345 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London. Cheltenham Open Drawing Competition, Cheltenham College of Art & University of Hull. (Commendation). “Sahmet – 50 Years of Independence”, Sahmet, Delhi, India.

1998 Cheltenham and Gloucester National Open Drawing Competition (third prize), touring to University of Lincolnshire & Humberside and Kunstatte Vest Banhof, Berlin. “Prints from Scotland”, UK, Iwate Arts Festival, Kyoto, Japan and touring to International Graphics Museum, Tokyo.

1999 “Tongues of Diamond: Myth, Metaphor and Story-Telling in Painting” Collins gallery, Glasgow. Touring to Leicester City Art Gallery and Stirling Museum. Cheltenham Open Drawing Competition The Art Fair The One off Contemporary Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya.

2000 “The Body is Still a Good Read”, The Pentagon Centre, Glasgow “Myth and Reality”, Nairobi   Museum, Kenya.

2001 Noble Grossart Painting Exhibition, Glasgow School of Art, Noble Grossart Painting Exhibition Lloyds TSB Headquarters, Edinburgh, and “Paintings and Drawings”, Wild Cherry, London

2002 “Glasgow Girls 2002”, Boundary gallery, London 2002 “Glasgow Girls”,  Shetland Museum

2004 “Solus”, Glasgow Print Studio,  “Love”,  Vaila Fine Art, Shetland

2005 “Monumental Women” with Paula Rego and Nicki de St. Phalle, Boundary Gallery, London 2008  “Painting Venice”,Vaila Fine Art, Shetland

2009 “Sacred”, Nova Gallery, London

2010 “400 Women”, Shoreditch Town Hall

2011 “The Discerning Eye” by invitation of Eileen Cooper,The Mall Galleries, London and “The Grace of the Birch” project for Stobhill hospital

2012  “400 Women in Holland” Halfweg, Sugarcity, Amsterdam and “400 Women” at the Edinburgh Festival

2015 Picture Poem Exhibition The Essential School of Painting

2016 Royal Scottish Academy “Home” Invited solo artist RSA  Annual Exhibition

Publications

Collections

• BBC Scotland Collins gallery
• Strathclyde University
• Museum and Arts Loan Service
• Private Collections: United Kingdom, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Malta, France, South Africa, Kenya, India and the United States    

Selected Bibliography

• “Glasgow Girls”, Clare Henry, The Glasgow Herald, 23^rd November 1987
• “Here Come the Glasgow Girls”, Dorothy Wade and Justine Picardie, The Independent, June 1987
• “Glasgow Girls”, Mary Rose Beaumont, Arts Review, November 1987
• “Scotland” Clare Henry Arts Review, 8^th May 1989
• “Scottish Paintings: 1837 to the Present” William Hardie, pages 214-215, 1990
• “Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture” Peter JM McEwan 1994
• “Alison Harper, Angels wear Silver“, Sandy Moffat, catalogue introduction, Compass gallery, October 1995
• “Passage to Magic of India, Alison Harper“, Clare Henry, The Herald. 30^th October 1995
• “Alison Harper”, W. Gordon Smith, The Scotsman. October 1995
• “Storming the Citadel”, Clare Henry, The Herald. 13^th March 1997
• “Journey into outer space”, The Glasgow Herald, 15^th May 1997

• “Restoring Female Identity; Strategies by Scottish Female Artists”, Catherine Agnes Stewart, Final year Dissertation, Glasgow School of Art, June 1997
• “Later Editions, Prints from Glasgow“, Martin Hopkinson, Iwate Art Festival, Japan, Introducing Scottish Culture and The Environment of Iwate, Catalogue essay. September 1998
• “Myth and Story telling: The Work of Alison Harper”, Urthona magazine, Autumn 1998
• “Tongues of Diamond”, Collins gallery catalogue introduction, Sandy Moffat, January 1999
• “A Lore unto Themselves”, The Herald 13^th February 1999
• “Tongues of Diamond”, The List, 4^th February 1999
• “Mythmakers”, Michael Murphy, Glasgow University Guardian, Jan. 1999
• “Tongues of Diamond”, Elizabeth Mahoney, The Scotsman, 28^th January 1999
• “The Body is Still a Good Read”, Giles Sutherland, The Times, May 2000
• “The Core of Attraction”, Interview with Dharmacharini Ashokasri, Urthona magazine, August 2002
• “Who’s who in Art 2006, 2010
• “Two Paintings, Two painters…” Barry Didcock, The Sunday Herald, 8^th April 2007
• History of Scottish Art
• Who’s Who of Women in the World

¹Alison founded the Essential School of Painting with Andrew Wamae in 2004

Portrait Photo ©Andrew Wamae Painting ©Alison Harper All rights reserved Used with artist’s permission