Angus Pryor studied at the Wimbledon School of Art, where he gained a distinction, Sculpture at Bath College of Higher Education where he received a BA (hons), and an MA in Art and Architecture at the Kent Institute of Art and Design.
Before coming to the University of Kent he was Head of School at Ashford School of Art and Design, which he developed from its conception.   He is now director of the School of Arts’s new Arts@Medway development
He is a practising painter with a studio in Kent. His large, tactile paintings are based around narratives of imagination

back to top

 

My paintings resist institutional appropriation. In their refusal of the readymade as a Duchampian object, they critique its ubiquity within contemporary practice. Instead, in post-conceptual fashion, I recycle the readymade back into the made by its assimilation within and through the visceral practice of painting.

The finished paintings sustain discursive narratives, which explore atomisation and fragmentation within the contemporary art world and its diminishing sense of social responsibility. They explore image-based social clichés such as sex, war, our relationships to self and to each other; the alienation of domestic bliss.  These paintings depict a corruption of sensibility.

He is a member of the Plastic Propaganda group

back to top

I have a history of creating Art departments of high-class and with quality outputs. I have always based my ethos around student-centred learning rather than following education models that may be fashionable but transient. The Ashford School of Art and Design (ASAD) was an art school set up to invigorate a return to learning for students who had become disaffected from the system this led to students from less privileged backgrounds gaining access to Higher Education as well as giving existing students the opportunity of high quality progression within their own institution.

The success of ASAD resulted in me being invited by the University of Kent to develop a Fine Art programme here.  This soon developed into a highly contemporary course which integrated theory with practice. 

Due to the high success rate of the BA in Fine Art and the fact that it was in the UK’s top 10 via NSS,  the University then gave the go-ahead for the expansion of the Fine Art programme on the Historic Dockyard at Medway.

Throughout this whole process, my studio has been linked to practice.  I have always taught from the perspective of generating ideas from the student’s own areas of interest.  (I am very much against the idea of a “house style”.)  This then leads to them being directed towards individual artists and theorists who have covered much of the ground already, through their individual practice.

My own work is part of the post-conceptual generation which I teach to students through theory.  The respect which is due to Art History and Theory is demonstrated not only via studio teaching but also through the discourse undertaken on visits made to museums and exhibitions, both in the UK and abroad.  I regularly invite contemporary artists in to discuss their work and have included students in the setting up of exhibitions and active involvement in the Arts outside the institution.

back to top