ABOUT:

Frost describes his work as abstract, but his titles and compositions hint the influence of music in his work. He says “I want my exhibitions to be like an album – it’s important that I have a title to the show – and the pictures themselves become the tracks on that album”

The name of this show, and title work, “Sublime frequencies” comes from a record label representing mainly North African bands, based in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Many of the remaining works, or tracks, continue the concept of the exhibition as an album. Orange Buzz Ohio, Sound Carrier, Delay Peddle and Red Crayola are all band names; Electric Honey is another record label; and Bug Juice was after a track heard on BBC Radio 6 Music. Mascara Snake I-IV the monotypes are named after a member of Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, who played the bass clarinet on Trout Mask Replica (produced with Frank Zappa).

The influence of music in Anthony Frost’s work includes bands such as Captain Beefheart and The Fall, for whom he designed the album cover for Extricate in 1990.

Other titles such as Green Light & Yellow Buzz are his own, and Ultra Blue comes from a colour primed on the canvas by his father ready for collage but left unfinished (Anthony Frost used the canvas, but some of the original primed colour can still be seen).

Anthony Frost's paintings are bright, full of colour and expression. They include repeated motifs (chevrons, triangles and circles), expressive marks and a mix of materials (acrylic, hessian, sail cloth, string and other materials that come to hand).

This hints at a complexity in the work, which at first sight appears quite straightforward. Although each work is planned, there is also a random element, which manifests itself in the creative process: Adding a piece of material or a tie that can change the painting's direction in surprising and unexpected ways.

Anthony Frost, born in 1951 in Cornwall, studied at the Cardiff College of Art (1970-73). He celebrates his sixtieth birthday this year, and can look back at 36 years of exhibitions and a large body of work, which is easily identifiable as his own.

From 1975 to date he has exhibited widely throughout the UK, with regular shows in St Ives and London. His most recent shows have been at Beaux Arts, in Cork Street (2008, 2009 & 2010) and at Tate St Ives ('Art Now' in 2008). Later in 2011, Anthony Frost's prints will be shown at The Armoury in New York with Advanced Graphics.

His work is in a number of corporate, public and private collections including Bank of America, Lloyds TSB, The Nuffield Trust, John Moores, Contemporary Art Society, Whitworth Gallery (Manchester) and Standard Life. In April 2009, Chichester University purchased "Ricochet Man" for the Bishop Otter Collection. In July 2009 Anthony Frost was awarded "Master of the University" in honour of services to the arts by the Open University, via Plymouth University (College of Art & Design).

ARTISTS:
Anthony Frost Mixed media on canvas