Andrew Gadd’s painting (above) is going into a thousand bus shelters in Britain. Andrew Gadd exhibits at Agnew’s Gallery and has had work in the National Portrait gallery and currently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He said:
This has been a very exciting project to work on. It has been my intention to create an image that does not explain but demonstrate the values that I think the church wants to communicate. At first I didn’t like the idea of painting a Nativity scene in an urban setting. However, once it was explained that it was to be designed for bus stops it gave me an idea… this idea. The bus stop when simplified is like a stable. It is after all a shelter; a place people go to but never want to be. So where better to stage a Nativity? How unlikely. The image would reflect the environment that it would be shown in and would therefore include the viewer. Which is what it is all about.
This work has been produced by the Churches Advertising Network, an ecumenical group that includes representatives from most of the mainstream churches. The Network says:
The oil painting on canvas measures 4 feet by 6 feet and depicts the holy family, with halos, in a dark bus shelter. The shepherds and wise men are replaced with fellow passengers waiting for a bus. Some are watching the nativity intently. Others appear oblivious and are checking the bus timetable and flagging down a bus.
