Painter and master printmaker Stephen Lawlor talks to Brian McAvera about the nuance of approach required for each medium, ahead of his solo show at Oliver Sears Gallery this winter
Brian McAvera: You have had residencies in China, 2011 and 2012, one in Finland in 1998 and one Singapore in 1986. What did you gain from them?
Stephen Lawlor: I was teaching and exhibiting on my visit to Singapore and it was my first visit to Asia. Just watching people on the streets and how they went about their daily lives was fascinating. China was very different but I loved it. Guanlan International Print Base has 100 staff and we were each given a small team to help us make work. The newness of Shenzhen and the scale of its expansion, as it tries to outdo Hong Kong is literally hard to take in. Perhaps New York and London felt like this in an earlier century. They took us on trips to some very ancient places and taking in the age and sophistication of the Chinese culture erased any Scandinavian welcome but it affected me deeply and has a strange way subsequently affected my work.
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