Mantelpiece James Lloyd

James Lloyd is an artist ordinarily associated with portraiture whose subjects have previously included a mix of politicians, actors and academics. Lord Irvine of Lairg, actress Saffron Burrows and fashion designer Sir Paul Smith number among his more famous sitters, whose portraits currently hang in the National Portrait Gallery.

Lloyd’s next show, however, represents a shift from subject to object with a series of 25 works focusing on the minutiae of everyday life.

The result is a series of objects – fruit, household appliances, blobs of paint, tennis balls - set against a stark, mantelpiece background and given centre stage on the canvas as though portraits in their own right.

The exhibition opened to the public from 10 December 2003 to 30 January 2004 at Hiscox.