Hurvin Anderson lives and works in the middle of nowhere. His wife, Alice (also his studio manager), has to pick me up from the station because taxis can never find the place. Their Cambridgeshire home, which they share with their three young children, is the kind that “home inspiration” Instagram accounts would eat up. It has a spiral staircase, expansive windows looking out on to endless greenery and a room that is an actual circle. Next door to the large property is Anderson’s equally impressive purpose-built studio on land where an old farm building once sat. “It’s just somewhere to work,” Anderson says in a rather humble manner for an artist once described by the Turner prize judges (he was nominated in 2017) as “an outstanding British painter whose art speaks to our current political moment with questions about identity and belonging”. Anderson used to have a studio in south London but the travelling back and forth became too time-consuming. Still, he has a love-hate relationship with the new one. “It’s a bit too close to home,” he says. “But I’m able to work in longer spells. It was hard getting back from London. It became impractical with the kids.”
We sit in the bright airy studio surrounded by objects – plants, sketches of figures, a map of Jamaica, mirrors, posters and paintings in progress. Anderson talks slowly and in a way that reads as nervous, but he’s warm and smiley and thinks carefully about his responses. He is wearing jeans and a dark blue hoodie and, at 58, has the face of someone much younger; a greying beard and are the only signs of his age. He’s been making art for 25 years and has exhibited all over the world, including, in recent years, in two major British group shows: Tate Britain’s Life Between Islands and the touring exhibition British Art Show 9. Just last week he was named a Royal Academician and now, he’s getting ready for his own exhibition at the Hepworth Wakefield entitled Salon Paintings. On show will be work from his best known series depicting barbershops, a selection of his drawings and more experimental work, plus a room curated by Anderson of work by British painters including Michael Andrews, Sonia Boyce and Denzil Forrester.
