Spin Events
Dark Light by Alison Watt
Dark Light I by Alison Watt (c) Courtesy of the artist and the Ingleby Gallery
Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh
22 February 2007, 6-7.30pm
Dear Spin Members
Dark Light is ‘a painting that can literally be stepped into.’ Scottish painter Alison Watt, who is currently artist-in-residence at the National Gallery in London, has created a room within a room in the form of a metal cube. Step inside and eloquent paintings of black cloth are revealed.
In previous solo exhibitions, namely Fold at the Fruitmarket Gallery in 1997, Watt presented diptychs of fabric and figure. Three years later in Shift at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, only the fabric and the suggestion of a human form remained. In 2004, she created Still, a composite of four 6ft paintings suspended in the Memorial Chapel of Old St Paul’s Church. This personal homage to this extraordinary space was one of the highlights of the Edinburgh Festival of 2004, and is now on permanent display.
As Watt’s paintings have become increasingly engulfing and abstract, Dark Light is the fruits of her ambition to create an installation piece, made as a result of her Creative Scotland Award.
We will be looking at this exciting new work and will also consider the shift from figurative painting to abstraction which is ever prominent in contemporary art, as well as focusing on the relationship between the dealer and the artist.
We look forward to seeing you there.