Clare Woods: The Dark Matter

This major exhibition explores the paintings of British artist Clare Woods.

The show features a number of new painting made especially for Southampton City Art Gallery. Some derive from photographs, then drawings, of the land, including standing stones, ditches, roots or pools. Using oil paint on aluminium, the artist then creates controlled layers of intense paint that form the images where colours and shapes swim together to create less recognisable and more abstract forms.

Also on display is the large-scale work, Carpenter’s Curve, which has been commissioned by the Olympic Delivery Authority as one of two paintings to be transformed into a public artwork for the Olympic Park Utilities Buildings in London 2012. This show explores the subjects behind these monumental works, and the creation of this significant commission.

To coincide with her exhibition, Woods, who was Southampton born, has curated a display of artworks from the Gallery’s permanent collection, many of which inspired her during regular visits to the gallery as a child.

Image Credit: Clare Woods Funnelled Hole (oil on aluminium) 2011 © the artist