The Cooper Gallery

Edward Higgins White III by Alek O by The Cooper Gallery

Hand-woven and embellished textile 

This extravagantly textured woven textile piece was commissioned for the Cooper Gallery for this exhibition. The piece was designed to be touched and will be used for handling sessions by the gallery once Covid restrictions have been lifted.  

The colours, textures and embellishments invite interaction. The artist is registered blind and her use of contrasting colours helps her to navigate her work on the loom.

This limited edition eau de parfum was created by award-winning perfume designer Azzi Glasser with Antony Gormley for his retrospective at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2019.  

Iron is inspired by the smell of Gormley’s studio  

“I wanted to capture the DNA scent print of IRON”

Untitled by Max Wigram by The Cooper Gallery

In dark, earthy colours and the yellow ochres of nicotine stains, two men are stood together, the one on the left is offering up his cigarette for the other man to use to light his. The only highlights in the image fall on the cigarettes and the men’s hands. The clothing they are wearing, and the tool that the man on the left is holding, shows that they are labourers and are likely to be in a work environment. The gesture between them suggests friendship and a level of camaraderie, despite the tough, hard environment that the men are in. The colour palette evokes the taste and smell of the cigarettes.

In this ink sketch, we can see the remnants of factory work in the foreground with rolling hills and factories behind. The factories are dark and foreboding and smoke plumes from their chimneys and merges with the clouds in the sky. The use of grey wash and no colour helps to create the oppressive feeling of this piece which, through the mark making used for the smoke and smog, and the rubbish in the foreground, the viewer can imagine the dirty, smoky smells and lack of fresh air that would have been present in a factory environment.

A male figure can be seen at the forefront of the image; he is wearing apron and workman’s clothes and is heating a tool in a furnace. Behind him are simple marks that depict an industrial setting with stone flag floors behind him on both the left and the right of the picture. Most of the picture is created using various shades of grey with oranges, reds and pinks used where the furnace is and to depict the area around it where heat would be. There is a rough, sketchy nature to the image, especially the depiction of the man who is represented as a line drawing. The lack of detail in the image, most notable in the background, still contain markings that allow the viewer to imagine the industrial, workshop setting. The use of red in the centre of the image, behind the worker, serves two purposes; it frames the central figure, but also depicts the heat of the environment. The simple mark making and effective use of colour create an almost claustrophobic scene where the darkness in the background and the hints of red suggest the smell of smoke and molten metal and the sensation you get when you breath in stuffy, hot air.

A photograph depicting bright coloured flowers including tulips and tropical flowers. The background is a deep blue and the bright pinks, reds and yellows of the flowers, and the rich green of the grass, stand out and display the vibrancy of nature. The plants and flowers also show many different textures; the tropical flowers on the left are spikey, the red ones in the centre are bushy, and, on the right, the four tulips are curved and smooth. The photograph has been taken from a low viewpoint which makes the flowers appear huge, as if you were walking through a jungle of them. The overall effect is quite surreal and bares a similarity to scenes from Alice in Wonderland. The artist froze the flowers to make this piece, so they would have had no perfume and would have wilted and browned quickly as they thawed.

This vibrant painting shows a warm blue sky and a lush green leafy background with a woman in the foreground holding flowers. She has olive skin, curly dark hair, warm friendly eyes that invite the viewer in and a slightly smile to her mouth. She’s wearing a white shirt with wide ruched sleeves and a full red skirt. Tied loosely around her shoulders with dark brown edges and an orange and yellow pattern. On the right-hand side of the picture, she is extending out a woven platter with 4 roses on it: a yellow one, a peach one, a pink one and a red one. On the left-hand side, in her right hand she is holding a yellow rose. Her fingers that are holding the rose are mimicking a beckoning movement and the outstretched platter almost invites the viewer to smell the roses. The use of colour in this painting is reminiscent of a warm summer’s day fragrant with roses.

A woman prepares food stood in front of a window through which there is a view of hills, farmland, and harvesting. The woman is preparing fish. Fruit, vegetables and there is  a glass of red wine on the table. The simple blue gingham tablecloth, the brown ceramic jug on the table, and the glass jar near the window with a single sprig of fresh herbs in it, all help to emphasise that this is  a rustic scene, evoking the joy of locally sourced ingredients and wholesome, home cooking.