Andrew Lanyon is an artist based in Cornwall. Andrew Lanyon works in mixed media. Andrew Lanyon is represented by Goldfish, Penzance

Andrew Lanyon is a painter, publisher, author, and film-maker.

This major exhibition features paintings, assemblage, films and books. Born in St. Ives in 1947, he was brought up in West Cornwall where photography was his interest from an early age.From 1966 - 1968 he studied at the London School of Film Technique; during this time Andrew organised the Durham Surrealist Festival and produced their catalogue. He then spent several years as a freelance photographer, at the same time, co-producing the Casual Eye, an exhibition about snapshots for Northern Arts.

In 1976 He constructed The Rooks of Trelawne - a major touring exhibition for the Photographers Gallery (London), accompanied by a book. The exhibition is still housed in the St. Ives Museum. This was followed by another book and touring exhibition, The Vanishing Cabinet.

By this time Andrew had been painting for several years and started to have solo exhibitions in London and provinces. He now has paintings in both the British Council and Contemporary Art Society collections.

In 1987 Andrew began to publish his own books, the first being Deadpan. Over thirty books and fifteen years on, copies can now be found in the Victoria and Albert Collection and the Museum of Modern Art - New York.

During the mid nineties, Andrew turned his attention back to film, bringing life to the characters in his books. The first film to be released was Splatt dhe Wertha (Plot for Sale), a Cornish language film directed by Bill Scott. It won the Golden Torc award at the 18th Celtic Film Festival in 1997 and was subsequently broadcast on Westcountry Television.

Since then, a number of grants have allowed Andrew to be author, producer, director and cameraman of a rapidly growing number of short films. Notably, South West Arts and Cornwall Film Fund have given him ongoing support. Recent productions include Laughing Gas, a feature-length film described as ‘a fictitious historical documentary’ about the spread of laughing gas around the world after Humphrey Davy’s discovery of it. At the same time it is a romantic comedy that follows the tale of a hero’s fall from fortune and a heroine’s rise, of his losing a great estate and of her regaining it - if only it were so simple.

Andrew’s studio is in a polytunnel at his home near Helston in Cornwall. The polytunnel provides excellent diffuse natural light for working in, as well as being a warm and dry place used on social occasions. From this space, Andrew has not only created his own work, but also books on his father; Peter Lanyon’s work, Alfred Wallis and other well known painters, sculptors and poets.