Alessandro Raho (born 1971, Nassau, Bahamas[1]) is a British artist. His work has been shown at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Alessandro Raho
Born1971 (age 52–53)
EducationGoldsmith College

Career

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Born in Nassau, Bahamas, Raho moved to London and attended Croydon College (1989–90) and then Goldsmith College, graduating in 1994 with a BA in Fine Art.[1] In 1995, he was included in the Young British Artist showcase Brilliant! at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.[2]

In early 1996, he was hailed as one of the great promises in British art,[3] and had expositions noted in the American[4] and the French press.[5] In 2001, Raho participated in an exposition called Unseen Landscapes,[6] in 2002, he was in the important Painting on the Move exhibition in at the Kunsthalle Basel. In 2003, exhibited his work at Cheim & Read Gallery in New York City, where his portraits received critical attention of The New York Times.[7]

In 2004, he was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery in London to paint a portrait of English actress Dame Judi Dench.[8] Imagining Dench as a "wealthy housewife," he painted her in a way that "thrilled and flattered" her.[9][10]

Raho's work is collected by Damien Hirst, and has been shown in Tokyo, New York, and Salzburg.[11] Two of his pencil drawings, Catherine (2003) and Ewan (2004), are in the collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art, as part of a 2005 donation by the Judith Rothschild Foundation.[12]

In 2014 Raho was nominated and short-listed for the John Moores Painting Prize. The prize was a subject of a BBC 4 documentary.[13]

Alessandro Raho is represented by Alison Jacques Gallery, London.[14]

Style

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Raho paints portraits of friends and family, seascapes and landscapes and still lives. He uses fine oil painting with a fresh contemporary approach.[15] His paintings and photographs were described as dealing with "narrative, nostalgia and desire," and he employs intricate technical processes "to make his paintings luxuriously photographic and his photographs deceptively painterly."[16]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Alessandro Raho". Cheim & Read. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  2. ^ "Brilliant! New Art from London/CAMH archive". Archived from the original on 19 November 2010. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
  3. ^ Norman, Geraldine (1 January 1996). "The young pretenders". The Independent.
  4. ^ "Stiff Upper Lip: British artists find irony in society's desperate politeness". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 24 March 1996.
  5. ^ "Artistes et galeries à travers le monde". Le Journal des Arts. 5 December 1997. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  6. ^ "Lowry the great minimalist". The Guardian. 25 May 2001. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  7. ^ "Art Guide". The New York Times. 3 October 2003. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  8. ^ NPG Online Archive, accessed, 11 March, 2010
  9. ^ Jinman, Richard (19 January 2005). "National Gallery unveils Dench portrait". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  10. ^ Gold, Tanya (20 January 2005). "Nothing like the dame". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  11. ^ Williams-Akoto, Tessa (8 November 2006). "My Home: Alessandro Raho, portrait artist". The Independent. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  12. ^ Rattemeyer, Christian (2009). The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection: Catalogue Raisonne. Museum of Modern Art. p. 232. ISBN 978-0-87070-751-3.
  13. ^ "Bohemian rhapsody: Alessandro Raho on Hastings as arts hotspot". BBC Arts. 27 October 2014.
  14. ^ "Alessandro Raho". Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  15. ^ Ewan, Alessandro Raho (1999).The Guardian 20 May 2000.
  16. ^ Nairne, Sandy; Sarah Howgate (2006). The portrait now. Yale UP. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-300-11524-6.