7 HOURS

SAMUEL ROSS (B. 1991)

7 HOURS

signed (lower left)

emulsion, acrylic, oil, masonry paint, aerosol, indian ink and fabric dye on soaked duck canvas in steel frame

53 9/16 x 103 15/16 inches (136 x 264 cm)

Executed in 2022.

PROVENANCE:

Private collection, London

EXHIBITED:

London, White Cube, Samuel Ross: LAND, April-May, 2023.

Savannah, SCAD Museum of Art, Samuel Ross: HEAVE, January-July, 2025.

NOTES:

Born in 1991 in London to Caribbean parents, Dr Samuel Ross MBE is a British artist, designer, and creative director whose multidisciplinary practice spans painting, sculpture, fashion, industrial design, and installation. Initially trained in graphic illustration before moving into product and industrial design, Ross first gained international recognition through the founding of his label A-COLD-WALL* in 2015, where he reimagined streetwear through a sharply conceptual and materially driven approach informed by architecture, labor, and class structures. Across both his visual art and design practices, Ross investigates systems of industry, Black identity, urban space, and material functionality, often working with utilitarian surfaces and industrial processes to create works that feel simultaneously engineered and deeply physical.

Executed in 2022, 7 HOURS exemplifies Ross’ materially experimental approach to abstraction. Composed using emulsion, acrylic, oil, masonry paint, aerosol, Indian ink, and fabric dye on soaked duck canvas, the work unfolds through layered gestures, stains, and ruptured surfaces that emphasize process as much as image. Ross treats the canvas less as a traditional support than as a site of physical intervention, allowing industrial materials to bleed, absorb, and accumulate across the composition. The resulting surface possesses a raw, weathered intensity, evoking erosion, impact, and the unstable relationship between body, landscape, and built environment.

Though abstract, 7 HOURS retains a strong bodily and architectural presence. Ross frequently draws connections between collapsed structures, industrial materials, and the lived realities of Black experience, using abstraction as a means of approaching psychological and social conditions indirectly rather than illustratively. Areas of density and abrasion are countered by moments of openness and atmospheric space, producing a tension between force and vulnerability that runs throughout the work. His use of soaked canvas and masonry paint further destabilizes traditional painterly hierarchies, collapsing distinctions between fine art, construction material, and physical labor.

Ross’ visual art has been exhibited internationally alongside his influential design practice, including presentations at White Cube and the SCAD Museum of Art, where 7 HOURS was exhibited as part of LAND (2023) and HEAVE (2025), respectively. In addition to his work as an artist, Ross has collaborated with major global brands including Nike, Apple, and LVMH through his design studio SR_A. His increasingly expansive practice positions him at the forefront of a generation of artists and designers redefining the intersections between material experimentation, contemporary abstraction, and Black cultural production.