Emma Stibbon: Melting Ice | Rising Tides

Her ink froze. Emma Stibbon was on the deck of the Antigua, a barquentine sailing boat forging a course into the arctic waters above Svalbad, Norway. The waters were rough as well as cold, and the artist was alleviating sea sickness by staying out on deck and drawing. Some works…

Ambrosine Allen @ DOLPH Projects

One (the?) aim of art writing is to interpret with words. But the imagery of so much art is so strong, that verbal language can only play an ernest second fiddle, happy just to be at the gig. (Works of literature isolate themselves on shelves and in libraries. Aware they…

Jeffrey Charles Henry Peacock, The Captive (2014)

JCHP are a two-man art ‘team’, who have been accused of ‘nigh-on psychotic self-analysis’ (in their own catalogue to boot*). So where to start and what to add? First, it’s a relief that Jeffrey Charles Henry Peacock are in fact hard grafting artists Dave Smith and Thom Winterburn. Thankfully, they’re…

Richard Serra, Courtauld Transparency #4 (2013)

What’s behind a painting or drawing, literally? The reverse of a canvas is a necessary mystery, with its potential for jottings, classifications, signatures and in some cases failed attempts. In terms of drawing, Serra knows enough about failure. The 14 works made for the Courtauld are to some degree beyond his…

Leonardo Da Vinci, Studies of the Human Skull (1489)

He may be one of the fifteenth century’s best known scientists and empiricists, but Leonardo has become synymous with mystery and obscurantism. The smoke which blurs the features of his most famous painting, also coils around the edges of these burnt-brown anatomy drawings and the plans he made elsewhere for…

Maxime Angel, Let My Eyes Be Your Mirror

From the pencil shavings and strewn magazines on the floor, it looks something like Maxime Angel has been living in the gallery. Indeed, there are reports she has slept on several works. She may even have slept inside the containerboard on the wall. The gallery assistant tells me the college-trained…

Preview: Otto Zitko and Louise Bourgeois – Me, Myself and I

Exhibition: Otto Zitko and Louise Bourgeois – Me, Myself and I, Arnolfini, Bristol, until July 4 2010 Born in 1911, Louise Bourgeois has been drawing for nearly a century. Her recent works are “about the marking of time while waiting for someone special to arrive”, according to the French artist…