Spotlight on Trevor Burgess

It seems like artist Trevor Burgess has been riding a bit of a wave over the last few months and it's about time.  Having shown his wonderfully vibrant paintings of urban life around the globe for around 15 years, we were over the moon for Trevor when he won the Best International Artist in the Artist of the Year Award 2025 for his painting 'Carnes y Embutidos (Valencia)' at the start of September.  This is the second time that this painting has been selected for an International Art Prize, as it was shortlisted for the BBA Artist Prize last year and was exhibited in Berlin.

In October, another of Trevor's Stacks and Wrap-ups paintings, 'Blue Wrap-Up (Yucatán) was selected by the panel for Wells Art Contemporary 2025. It featured in the exhibition alongisde over 100 other works in the glorious setting of Wells Cathedral, Britain's oldest gothic cathedral, in Somerset.

The painting Blue Wrap-Up was inspired by a visit to the archeological site of the Mayan city, Chichen Itza in the Yucatán peninsula, Mexico. The site is extensively spread out amidst jungle trees rising out of soil the colour of bronze or terracotta. Chichen Itza supports a large community of traders selling to tourists and Trevor's painting depicts the moment he and his partner arrived as steady rain began to fall and the traders were packing up for the day. The site was studded with their merchandise protected from the rain under tarpaulins.

Stacks and Wrap-ups are a series of large canvases that emerged out of Trevor's Market Paintings. They draw on visits the artist has made to markets after hours when they were closed. Each canvas features piled up goods, under wraps, presenting the viewer with a sculptural form, which powerfully dominates the canvas.

The catalyst for the paintings was an experience Trevor had in the central market of the remote Argentinian town of San Juan. In one section of the market were a series of piled up stacks of market goods and paraphernalia that evoked a warehouse art installation of large-scale sculptures. The objects were immense, bound-up and mysterious - under wraps.

These works give a nod to art history, minimalism, Christo and Jeanne Claude's wrapped objects, and sculptural conventions that go back to Arte Povera, encompassing assemblage processes and the concept of the found object.

Last month, Trevor had not just one but four of his paintings selected for the Ing Discerning Eye Award exhibition, in the Mall Galleries chosen from over 65,000 entries.  In contrast to the Stack and Wrap-up series, these distinctive paintings capture the colours and heart of bustling city market life at its busiest and were chosen by three of this year's selection panelists, Rosie Millard, Polly Morgan and Chris Stephens.