Shadow is, for me, a key element in how an object influences its environment. It’s something I have played with over decades, most recently with my Drifts and I find it almost magical. You can see then why these pieces caught my eye at Collect at Somerset House. Lovely as they are in themselves, the […]
Artists
Bridget Bailey at Collect, Somerset House
These photos only give an impression of Garden of Making, Bridget Bailey’s installation at this year’s Collect, held at Somerset House. Imagine a soundtrack of birdsong and breeze while looking at these pictures. Bailey, a textile artist, uses precise millinery techniques to capture the atmosphere and impressions of the natural world as experienced on her […]
At Somerset House
Ooh, things have changed since I was last here and what a delight – the roadworks outside Somerset House have finally ended to reveal a new pedestrian area (East Strand). It’s larger than I expected, stretching from the previously isolated St. Mary le Strand through to Aldwych. You now move from open to narrow (Somerset […]
Brigid McLeer at the Crafts Council Gallery
Part of the Cotton: Labour, Land & Body exhibition at the Crafts Council Gallery, Brigid McLeer’s installation was especially moving for me. I found this exhibition particularly interesting due to my personal and professional connection to the subject. I studied mixed-media textiles at art school and use fabric in my work today. Much of my […]
Alice Neel at The Barbican
The spareness of this portrait, unfinished yet complete, struck me by its beauty. Titled Black Draftee (James Hunter) and painted in 1965, I wondered why it was never finished. Did he go off to war, never to return? Or was it too painful to continue? After a bit of research I learnt that he only […]
Günther Förg at Hauser & Wirth London.
Tupfenbilder, a solo show of work by Günther Förg at Hauser & Wirth on Savile Row, contains some absolutely towering paintings. I wasn’t familiar with his work and can’t say I’m a fan of everything he’s done but found that these late paintings (from 2007 – he died in 2013) exude a vibrant, often joyful […]