About the work

Drawn from life whilst waiting at a service station in Germany, in the municipality of Drei Gleichen (Three Castles), in Thüringer. The station has an outdoor grill, and I drew three men eating pretzels and sausages from the van.

Date and country of birth

1987, GB

About the artist

Born 1987 Crewe, Stuart Middleton lives and works in Glasgow. Graduated from BA (Hons) Painting, Camberwell College of Art, London (2009); and HBK Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main (2016).

Middleton’s practice involves drawing, painting, sculpture, text and animation. His projects reflect on structures that both control and comfort, using storytelling as a research method to examine spaces where ideas of responsibility, capital, gender, class and cruelty intersect. His diverse use of materials and his multi-disciplinary approach intentionally seeks to avoid conventional classification in order to develop a resistant form of creativity that is responsive and economical in terms of energy, material and its effect on the environment.

Selected solo exhibitions include Rupert, Lithuania (2021); Stuart Middleton, Carlos/Ishikawa at Qiao Space, Shanghai (2019); Motivation and Personality, Künstlerhaus Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz (2018); Improvers, Carlos/Ishikawa, London (2018); Beat, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2017); Beat, Tramway, Glasgow (2017); the gonks, Carlos/Ishikawa, London (2015); and Sad Sketches, Piper Keys, London (2014).  Selected group exhibitions include Towner International Inaugural Biennial, Towner, Eastbourne (2020); Drawing 2020, Gladstone Gallery, New York (2020); Online Exhibition, The Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London (2020); Animation Beyond Cinema, National Gallery of Art, Washington (2019); Hello, My Name is Capitalism, Peak Projects, London (2019); Techniques of the Observer, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York (2019); Drawing Biennale 2019, Drawing Room, London (2019); Animation Beyond Cinema, National Gallery of Art, Poznan (2018); and Bug Out, Schiefe Zähne, Berlin (2018).

Awards include Gasworks + Proyecto URRA Residency, Buenos Aires (2019); Städelschule Portikus e.V Prize (2016); Elephant Trust funding and Arts Council Grants for the Arts (2013); and Mostyn Open 18 Prize Winner, Mostyn Art Gallery, Llandudno (2013).