Anna-Lise Horsley
Anna-Lise Horsley studied at Liverpool College of Art 1967-8, Newport College of Art 1968-71, Goldsmiths College London 1971-2. She was awarded a British Council Scholarship (painting) to the Royal Danish Academy of Art 1972-3, was a visiting lecturer in Art at the University of Wisconsin 1974-5, and Lecturer at Beckenham College of Art, London 1975-80. She has lived and worked as a painter in Brooklyn, New York USA 1980-82 and in Budapest, Hungary 1985-94. Since 1994 she had studios in France and England. Her works are held in public, corporate and private collections in England, Denmark, Norway, France, Australia, Hungary, USA. She now works from a studio in Cromer, on the North Norfolk coast.
Her solo exhibitions include Cromer Artspace & Museum (2023), The Hostry at Norwich Cathedral (2022), Salthouse Church, Norfolk (2021, 2017, 2006), Nunns Yard Gallery, Norwich (2016), Norwich Theatre Royal (2009), Baskerville House, Birmingham (2008), New Cut Arts, Halesworth (2007), Centre Point, London (2007), King of Hearts, Norwich (2011, 2003), and four galleries in Budapest in 1993.
She was shortlisted for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and the Marmite Prize in 2016, and showed in the Holt Festival Art Prize every year from 2013 to 2017. Her group exhibitions include A Generous Space at Hastings Contemporary (2021), NCAS 21 at The Hostry, Norwich (2021), the Cley open exhibitions (2013, 2017, 2018, 2019), Vision and Reality at Norwich Castle (2012), Landscape 2000 at Norwich Castle (2005), the Eastern Open at King's Lynn (2004–2007), Oceans Apart Gallery, Manchester (2021), Uig Open, Scotland (2022), Wighton 24 (2024), Wighton 26 (2026) and Cromer Artspace (2026). She was shortlisted for the 2026 Holt Art Awards.
Artist Statement
My paintings involve different processes and materials, I often work on the floor so that paint can make its own way into canvas or paper as if making a giant watercolour. Studio walls are covered with small paintings and drawings, forming a huge sketch book. These images creep into my paintings through peripheral vision. This method allows for unpredictable forms to enter the work. One thing leads to another throughout this playful balance between chaos and order.
I am currently making a series of large works on paper called 'Mauvaises Herbes'. These are related to some images in my collection of old Botany books.
I recently started experimenting with clay. This material allows me to work in a free and open way which resembles my approach to painting. I am astonished by the way that clay can be transformed by extreme heat into objects resembling bone, metal, jelly, or something ancient. At the moment I am making a group of porcelain 'Relics' called Grimalkins.