About the work

It’s a drawing of Olive from On the Buses which was a popular comedy TV series from the 1970s. Nothing good ever happened to Olive. She was the butt of most of the male character’s humour, not that On the Buses was that funny. It seemed to show Britain as a pretty grim place and in some ways was quite true to life. Life was worse if you were working class and even harder if you were Olive. Pleasure was to be had in small acts of rebellion. Things don’t change.

Date and country of birth

1966, GB

About the artist

Born 1966 Coventry, George Shaw lives and works in Devon. Graduated from Royal College of Art, London (1998); and Sheffield Polytechnic (1992).

Shaw bases his detailed paintings on photographs of the proletarian suburbs, often taken by the artist himself and his family, or published in local magazines. His suburban landscapes, showing town halls, rows of garages, faded parks or playgrounds, are the result of a meticulous application of Humbrol enamel on wood, a process that results in attractive, brilliant, and highly detailed images.

Selected solo exhibitions include A Corner of a Foreign Field, Holburne Museum, Bath and Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven (2018-2019); The Lost of England, MARUANI MERCIER, Brussels (2017); My Back to Nature, National Gallery, London (2016); Neither My Arse Nor My Elbow, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2013); The Sly and Unseen Day, South London Gallery, London (2013); The Sly and Unseen Day and Payne’s Grey, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2011); I Woz Ere, The Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry (2011); Looking for Baz, Shaz, Gaz and Daz, VOID, Derry (2010); Poets Day, Kunstverein Freiburg (2007); and Centre d ‘Art Contemporain, Geneva (2006). Selected group exhibitions include Among the Trees, Hayward Gallery, London (2020); Large Against the Sky, Small Between the Stars, The Quebec City Biennial (2019); British Arts Council Collection touring exhibition, Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Kita (2015); REALITY, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Art, Norwich (2014); Out of Britain, National Museum of Bucharest (2013); Nothing Like Something Happens Anywhere, Chapter Gallery, Cardiff (2011); and British Art Show 7, Nottingham and touring (2010).

Awards include nomination for a South Bank Sky Arts Awards (2017), and the Turner Prize (2011). Residencies include Associate Artist at the National Gallery, London (2014-16).