About the work

I draw people in wildernesses, waste-grounds or bleak, public spaces and subject them to an ‘iconoclastic’ method of working which, by defacing them, makes them appear mutable and fragile. I draw across them, blur their features, surround them with blots, encroach on them with lines or dissolve them into fluidity. They appear vulnerable not just to wild nature or urban degradation but to my method of unmaking and disfigurement. Since 2012 I have drawn series of ‘Shoppers’, pensioner women going down the chilly, glaring aisles of Asda, Lidl or Iceland or pushing their trolleys in messy precincts around the stores. They seem to me to suggest the struggle of ageing figures in the modern city.

Date and country of birth

1950, GB

Career Highlights

Solo exhibitions include: Unbound, Paul Stolper (2022); Here Comes Everybody, St Paul’s Cathedral, London (2015);World of Light, Triumph Gallery, Moscow (2008); Paradise Alone, Ferens Gallery, Hull (2003). Recent group shows include: Sila, Royal Geographical Society (2023); Holding Space, Bonhams (2023); Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize (2023); Tyranny of Ambition, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda (2022). Since 2018 she has painted murals in psychiatric units for Hospital Rooms charity. Her ‘Covid’ drawings have been bought by The British Museum, The Science Museum, Imperial College and The Government Art Collection. A monograph of her work will be published by Anomie next year.