Avis Newman is amongst Britain’s most highly regarded contemporary artists and has shown extensively in Britain and abroad.
This major exhibition presented an opportunity to see recent canvases together with the ongoing series of boxes.
Drawing as a process of representation and image-making has long been central to Newman’s work. Her recent canvases have evolved from her earlier work which made symbolic reference to human and animal forms. In the Webs (Backlight) series of stretched and unstretched canvases, the image of a spider’s web appears through the deeply embedded marks in the layers that form the surface of the works. The web becomes a metaphor for that which is beyond representation. The canvases, like the sealed boxes containing natural matter, recognise the gulf between concept and realisation.
This was the second part of a two-part exhibition, the first of which took place at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, in September-November 1995. A core of works is common to both exhibitions, however Newman has selected a number of different works for each show in response to the particular atmosphere and characteristics of the two venues.
