About the work

This drawing is very connected to my current paintings. I’m drawn to forms which, in my mind, don’t remain static: to me, the curved foreground shape oscillates between the back of a head, ground and light. When making the drawing I was thinking of an imagined field of vision, containment and capture. I also wanted to retain something of the process of making – the feel and touch of working with charcoal, exploring a variety of mark, tone and speed.

Date and country of birth

1979, GB

About the artist

Born 1979 Cambridge, Phoebe Unwin lives and works in London.  Graduated from BA Fine Art, Newcastle University (2002); and MFA Slade School of Fine Art (2005).

Unwin's paintings shift between figuration and abstraction creating a personal register of images and marks based on observations and constructs of memory. Using a variety of media, from oil and acrylic paint to pastel and graphite, she emphasises a material relationship with form and colour.

Her work is held in public and private collections including Tate, London; Maramotti Collection, Reggio Emilia; Arts Council Collection UK; British Council Collection; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Southampton City Art Gallery; The Government Art Collection, UK; and The Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven.

Selected solo exhibitions include Iris, Towner Gallery, Eastbourne (2019); Field, Maramotti Collection, Reggio Emilia (2018); and Pregnant Landscape, Amanda Wilkinson Gallery, London (2018). Selected group exhibitions include Pericolante, Arcade, London and Vortic Online Platform (2020); Le realtà ordinarie, Banca di Bologna (2020); and Cet Elixir, Moly-Sabata Fondation Albert Gleizes, Sablons (2019).

Awards include being shortlisted for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women Sixth Edition in Collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery (2015); and being awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize from The Leverhulme Trust (2012).