Nick’s Top Ten Artists from the Saatchi Online Gallery
I was recently asked to pick my top ten artists from the Saatchi Online Gallery to be featured in the Saatchi Gallery magazine which I really enjoyed doing. After spending many (many) hours trawling through the 60,000 odd artists that display their work on the Saatchi Online website I finally had a list of ten that I thought displayed talent, ingenuity, commitment and potential. You should take note of the names of the artists I picked because they are destined for big things. As well as choosing my top ten artists I also had to pick one of those artists to be my top pick and that artist is Boo Saville whose work you can see in the image on the right.
The first time I laid eyes on the work of British artist and Slade graduate Boo Saville, I was immediately struck by the intensity, intricacy and rawness of her monochromatic ink drawings most of which were created using the humble ballpoint pen which, according to the artist, can be “worked just like graphite and ink”. Since graduating from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2004 Saville has notched up an impressive list of achievements in a short space of time with her work having been exhibited at the General Public Gallery in Berlin, the British Affordable Art Fair and Sesame Art Gallery in London and an exhibition at the extremely prestigious London gallery Martin Summers Fine Art Ltd planned for Spring 2008. In 2004 Saville became one of the first members of the artists co-op The Children of !WOWOW! which enjoys cult status among the contemporary art fraternity with big name artists such as Matthew Stone, Gareth Cadwallader and Ellie Tobin behind its success.
An obvious eye for detail and what can only be described as a masterful and innovative use of tonal variation has resulted in works that are far from what one would expect to see from a traditional ink drawing. Detailed, realistic and expertly executed depictions of monkeys and other primates dominate Saville’s work and are full of personality and appeal but it is her more adventurous, abstract works that are the most exciting. The ghostly human figures and alien-looking life forms with titles such as ‘Grimace’, ‘Bang Face’ and ‘Bogman’ evoke an immediate response that seems to constantly evolve as one becomes acquainted with each image. It is these works that truly showcase Saville’s creativity and ingenuity.
To see more of Boo Saville’s work on Saatchi Online click here.
Saatchi Online Top Ten Chosen by Nicholas Forrest:
**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.
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