Painter and teacher, born in Munster, Germany, who gained an honours degree in fine art from Newcastle University, 1975–79, taught by Kenneth Rowntree, then his master’s in painting from the Royal College of Art, 1980–3, under Peter de Francia. He was awarded a series of fellowships, including Arts Council Artist in Industry, 1979; Churchill, 1984; Harkness, 1984–6; New York Foundation for the Arts, 1987; and Florida Council on the Arts, 1995. Teaching included Royal College of Art; in America Pratt Institute of Art and Design and the School of Visual Arts, both in New York, New World School of the Arts, University of Florida, and Bennington College, Vermont; and from 1999 a professorship at London College of Music and Media. Exhibited widely internationally in mixed shows.
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In his 1999 Spring Show, at Gallery 27, James Huntington-Whiteley included paintings by Gardiner of Ballard Point, Dorset, viewed from the room used in 1935 by Paul Nash when writing the Shell Guide to Dorset. The stylised, abstracted pictures were on wooden panels, gesso-layered and painted to create multi-textural works with varying strata. In 2000 Gardiner’s solo exhibition Ballard Point toured to Neuhoff Gallery, New York; Pier Trust Gallery, Swanage; and Belgrave Gallery, curated by Keith H Chapman. Gardiner was also involved in Purbeck Light Years, described as “a three-dimensional temporal arena which evokes a calm, receptive state of mind,” which involved a mix of traditional and modern techniques. Northcote Gallery held Purbeck Light Years – Corfe Castle in 2004. In that year Gardiner also had a show at Maltby Gallery, Winchester, and one at Gallery 286 which comprised views of the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha. In 1999, Gardiner moved to Bath, Somerset. Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery, the Imperial College of Science, Royal College of Art, St Thomas’s Hospital and several corporate collections hold Gardiner’s work.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
