Rachel Howard : Repetition is Truth – Via Dolorosa

Calming exhibition at the Newport Street Gallery showing this collection of paintings by Rachel Howard made between 2005 and 2008.
 
These were abstract works but represent the fourteen Stations of the Cross and found their genesis in the famous photograph of an Iraqi detainee standing on a box undergoing torture at the hands of US military personnel. The show started with her direct interpretation of this picture which shows a covered figure in a hood with their arms outstretched.
 
The pictures themselves are consist of stripes of paint from the top of the work and have a slightly out of focus feeling. They made me think of a mix of Rothko for the minimalism and Riley for the stripped effect. As you know I’m not a great abstract fan but I loved the muted colour and organic feel of these works. Although they were all quite similar they had a calming, slowing effect.
 
Her method, descripted in the leaflet, is that she lets varnish and pigment separate in gloss tins of paint then pours it down the canvas using the varnish to push the pigment down the surface. Layers are built up in this way from both ends of the canvas with a month’s drying time needed between each layer. She describes each work as “a place, a step, a pause, contemplation”.


Closed on 28 May 2018

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