David Ainley – Hidden Extraction (From Landscape)
19 March 2026 –9 May 2026
Beam is delighted to present an exhibition of paintings by David Ainley (b.1943). The exhibition includes several paintings in acrylic, drawings in mixed-media and watercolours that reflect the artist’s sustained interest since the mid-1990s in mined and quarried places and the ‘unseen’ activity that shapes the landscape. Ainley’s research draws upon both ancient and modern mining practices, locally and globally including Derbyshire, where the artist lives and works, Cornwall, the North Pennines and present-day endeavours in the pursuit of precious minerals such as coltan, which is used in the production of digital products such as mobile phones, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The artworks are constructed from systems, symbols and forms that represent the qualities of mined materials, techniques of extraction and the environments created. These highly intensive works also meditate on the immense human labour required in both ancient mining and contemporary artisanal mining practices. Many of Ainley’s works include thousands of lines incised in multiple layers of monochrome. These lines are often scraped back to reveal previous layers, resulting in shifts in colour, texture and density. This process of revealing echoes both the nature of mining and the construction of geology. The paintings and drawings also include lines cut through the surface, which can refer to mineral deposits mapped in the landscape and veins of material found within the geology of the environment. Holes can also reflect a fascination with mineshafts and observing blastholes drilled in limestone quarrying, where explosives are used to extract materials, and a frequent ‘x’ motif, used to symbolise the importance of location both in the process of prospecting and extraction, also suggests sacrifice.
Ainley’s work reflects his deep knowledge of art history. It is a rare example of a painting practice that addresses the landscape from the perspective of human labour that has shaped the landscape as opposed to the depiction of picturesque scenes or the landed gentry which underpins the history of landscape painting. In many ways, Ainley’s work highlights a ‘hidden’ landscape, both underground and on the surface, but is often misunderstood as being natural, when it is in fact man-made.
The artist’s first significant works made in the 1970s draw upon practices associated with Minimalism, systematic and conceptual forms of art that were pioneering art forms of the 1960s and 70s. This still underpins the artist’s practice today. Ainley now uses the reductive visual language of Minimalism as a tool to draw attention to social histories and contemporary issues. His work is also informed by interests in minimalist classical music, improvisation in jazz, poetry and cultural geography.
Curated by Prof. Mark Rawlinson and Jonathan Casciani - Director, Beam Editions
Biography
David Ainley has extensive experience since 1964 in teaching Fine Art practice and theory in universities, colleges and schools (latterly at the University of Nottingham), and for many years in art education and initial and postgraduate teacher education in art (University of Derby). From 2001 to 2005 David Ainley was engaged by Winsor & Newton to lecture on materials and techniques in the practice of painting in over 25 Fine Art Departments in Universities and Colleges. He was an active member of the Midland Group, Nottingham (founder member of The Midland Art and Community Centre Ltd) and of the Derby Group and is now a member of Contemporary British Painting. He has a biographical entry in Buckman, D. (2006) Dictionary of Artists in Britain since 1945 (Vol. 1) Bristol: Art Dictionaries Ltd., and in Fineran, J (2003) An Illustrated Who’s Who of Artists in Derbyshire.
CV
Selected Solo Exhibitions 2017 'Extractive Industry: New Drawings by David Ainley', Westminster Art Reference Library, London; 2016 David Ainley, Paintings, London Art Fair, Islington (Abbey Walk Gallery); 2012 - 'Encounters': David Ainley Paintings, Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire; 2011 - 'Lie of the Land': David Ainley Paintings & Drawings, New Court Gallery, Repton; 2010 - 'Reservoirs of Darkness': David Ainley Paintings & Drawings, Wallner Gallery, Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham: 1997 ‘The Quarrying Series’, National Stone Centre, Wirksworth; 1966 - David Ainley: Recent Paintings, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham Selected Group Exhibitions 2025 ‘Unquiet Landscapes’, Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield; 2025 ‘Postcards for Seyðisfjörður’ at Sluice International Expo, Iceland, the Embassy of Iceland, London, and (forthcoming) the Icelandic Embassy, Copenhagen, Denmark; 2023/4 ‘Arcadia for All? Rethinking Landscape
Painting Now’, Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds and Attenborough Arts Centre, University of Leicester; 2023 ‘X’ An Exhibition of Contemporary British Painting, High Bridge Works, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; 2019 ‘Made in Britain: 82 Painters of the 21st Century’, National Museum, Gdańsk, Poland; 2018 Paint North, Leeds; 2017-2018 Jerwood Drawing Prize (London & tour); 2017 Contemporary Masters from Britain, Yantai Art Museum, China, then Jiangsu Arts and Crafts Museum and Jiangsu Art Museum, Nanjing, and Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Tianjin; 2017 'Neverends' (with Judith Tucker, Harriet Tarlo, Linda Ingham, David Power and works from the ACGB Collection including Richard Long, Hamish Fulton, Andy Goldsworthy), Muriel Barker Gallery, Fishing Heritage Centre, Grimsby; 2016 'Precious Little', Harrington Mill Studios, Nottingham then Art-Athina, Athens; 2015 ‘Contemporary British Abstraction’, SE9 Container Gallery, London; 2015 Stations of the Cross, Brentwood Cathedral then SE9 Container Gallery, London; 2015 Contemporary British Watercolours, Maidstone Museum and Bentlif Art Gallery, then the Oriel Gallery, Antrim Castle, Antrim and Burton Art Gallery and Museum, Bideford, Devon; 2014-15 ‘@PaintBritain’, Ipswich Art School Gallery, Ipswich; 2014 ‘Contemporary British Painting’, Huddersfield Art Gallery; 2014 Tom Early and Friends (David Ainley, Ian Breakwell, Peter Lanyon, Ben Nicholson, Keith Richardson-Jones, et al), Falmouth Art Gallery; 2013 'The Discipline of Painting' (with Trevor Sutton, Katrina Blannin, Luke Frost, Dan Roach, Andrew Parkinson, Lauri Hopkins, curated by David Manley); 'Excavations & Estuaries' (with Judith Tucker, Harriet Tarlo, Susan Derges, David Walker-Barker, curated by Linda Ingham); 2012 - ING Discerning Eye 2012 (Shows curated by Doris Lockhart, Albert Irvin & Gerald Walker), Mall Galleries, London; 2005 - Jerwood Drawing Prize 2005 (3 works selected) Jerwood Space, London (& tour) and Jerwood Drawing Prize 2002 (Cheltenham & tour). Winner of the Derby City Open Exhibition 2004 with the painting 'Landscape Issues: Dark Prospect'.
https://www.contemporarybritishpainting.com/david-ainley/