ANDREA BYRNE PROFILE

ANDREA BYRNE  

Andrea Byrne was born in Islington in 1962, moving to Lancashire at the age of seven. She initially completed an art foundation course before moving on to John Moores University, Liverpool where she gained a degree in Fashion/Textiles 1981 -84.Whilst doing her degree she was a finalist in the “19” magazine “Young Designer of the Year”, and was one of the young fashion designers chosen for the Olympia Student Fashion stand.  She moved back to London in 1986 and went on to pursue an internationally successful career in fashion illustration, working for many leading advertising agencies, magazines and design groups, ranging in diversity from Vogue, Saatchi & Saatchi to the Natural History Museum. Throughout the last ten years Andrea has been a presence in many London Art Schools lecturing on life drawing, fashion and printed textiles. In 1988 Andrea was awarded the highly acclaimed “Guardian Illustration Award”, representing and illustrating for the publication during Japanese Fashion Week in Tokyo . In April 2000 her large-scale nudes were featured in an article in Vogue magazine.  

More recently painting has become her focus, initially with large-scale nudes, then with representations of flowers. Her work is an extension of her involvement within contemporary fashion movements, whilst retaining her individual stylistic approach. She has completed a series of important commissions for Aquascutum for their Spring 2003 international press campaign, and which were on view at their London Regent Street store. She has also been the subject of an extensive and extremely complimentary article in “Designweek”.  

Andrea has been with Hicks Gallery since the beginning of 2001 and has been our best selling artist during that time. A large selection of her work was featured in a sell - out one woman show at the gallery in April 2002 and was also sold out at the March 2002, 2003 and 2004 Affordable Art Fairs.  A further sell - out one woman show was held in November 2003. In September 2004 she decided to study for her MA at St. Martins School of Art. She has had to restrict her painting activities on the instructions of the School and so work has been hard to come by during that time. She has successfully completed her studies and is now painting again full time, and early indications are that the work is better than ever.

Viewing  
                     
Next