Suminder Virk MA Fine Art

I am a painter inspired by Brutalist and Modernist architecture's sharp angles, clean lines, and geometric patterns.

I began producing art 25 years ago when a friend suggested that I try out painting. What interested me most, and caused me to pursue painting for the rest of my life, was the satisfaction I took in the physical process of creating a work of art. Working with the materiality of paint has now become a crucial language through which I make sense of the world. Such physical engagement is important to me as greater portions of everyday life are digitised into immateriality and images increasingly replace the real.

Since that introduction to painting I have pursued my interests through completing a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art in 2007 and a Master’s in Fine Art in 2021 from Birmingham City University. I have continued to work with abstraction and materiality, having been influenced by Mark Rothko, Sean Scully, and Howard Hodgkin.

My current

MORE

I am a painter inspired by Brutalist and Modernist architecture's sharp angles, clean lines, and geometric patterns.

I began producing art 25 years ago when a friend suggested that I try out painting. What interested me most, and caused me to pursue painting for the rest of my life, was the satisfaction I took in the physical process of creating a work of art. Working with the materiality of paint has now become a crucial language through which I make sense of the world. Such physical engagement is important to me as greater portions of everyday life are digitised into immateriality and images increasingly replace the real.

Since that introduction to painting I have pursued my interests through completing a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art in 2007 and a Master’s in Fine Art in 2021 from Birmingham City University. I have continued to work with abstraction and materiality, having been influenced by Mark Rothko, Sean Scully, and Howard Hodgkin.

My current work examines the colours, textures, and sensations associated with urban life in both India and Britain. Layering and scraping away paint on the canvas is an analogue of the long-term processes of the city. This focus on urban change and transient experience often means that the end result is less important than the transitions and changes the canvas experiences over time.

2007 LSA summer exhibition, Art School, L. Spa.
2007 Final year degree exhibition, UCE, Birmingham.
2006 Student exhibition, Works gallery, Birmingham.
2006 NHS institute for Innovation and Improvement, University of Warwick, Warwick
1996 International women's week, Herbert Gallery, Coventry.
1993 Delhi regional open exhibition, Delhi.