Operating through a combination of intention and accident, McVeigh’s new work has a vivid immediacy that celebrates the potential of the medium to suggest, rather than define, possible readings. In a series of large-scale monoprints, the black acrylic, rich and tactile in its material presence, is coaxed into yielding interpretations that refuse to settle. Through a combination of drawing, gesture and chance, the works pulse with a vital, contagious energy, oscillating between abstraction and figuration.
In the collages, this fertile indeterminacy keeps the viewer busy through a free association of word and image, untethered from their source and made to speak in tongues. Also showing are works on found paper. McVeigh isolates pages from sources such as sailing manuals, old encyclopedias and book keeping ledgers and assaults them with drawing or mark-making, prompting dialogues through obliteration and accretion.
At first glance, the pieces may appear simple in their resonant immediacy but are, in fact, remarkably complex. McVeigh’s practice involves instinctively creating ‘in the moment’, responding to and activating the materials at hand through cutting, pasting, drawing, tearing and painting. The apparently austere colour scheme further reinforces the impact and physicality of the work.
This Thursday join the artist, Sotiris Kyriacou (curator) and JJ Charlesworth (writer and Reviews Editor, Art Review) for an informal tour of the artist’s show at A Foundation. This event is free, to reserve your place call (0)20 8969 3959.
McVeigh’s work is currently on show at the NY Arts Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale until November 22nd and Whitney McVeigh will also feature in a BBC Four documentary presented by Gus Casley-Hayford on the current art scene.
www.afoundation.org.uk
Image (c)Whitney McVeigh courtesy the artist and the gallery
Whitney McVeigh, Untitled IV, 2009, Acrylic monoprint on paper 153cm x 152cm
Whitney McVeigh, Untitled 3, 2009, Acrylic monoprint on paper 153cm x 152cm
Whitney McVeigh, Knots and Splices (triptych) Etching Ink Monoprint on found paper 2009,
