Hayley Tompkins

Glasgow-based artist Hayley Tompkins (b. 1971) has exhibited widely both in the UK and internationally since graduating from the MFA at Glasgow School of Art in 1998. Recent shows include The Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, Country Grammar, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Minimalism and After III, Daimler Chrysler, Berlin and a solo exhibition at Andrew Kreps, New York.

Courtesy: Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna 2003

Tompkins cites Malevich, Sonia Delaunay and Oskar Schlemmer as influences, and has become associated with the small-scale unframed watercolour drawings that have become her trademark:  ‘doodled loosely on wrinkled sheets of note paper, or brushed straight on to the wall, her watercolours are – quite literally – rough round the edges. Scribbled dots and wobbly lines are spaced around the gallery in no particular pattern, depicting no particular content’. (Catriona Black, 2004).

In contrast to the crisp, clean white sheet of paper, this lo-tech, crinkled, worn effect indexes the physical presence of the artist and brings in to play the suggestion of an image’s history. ‘It is important that the work exists as naturally as possible, so nothing should feel too forced… The way things are arranged should feel quite behavioural, as if someone had been there and done that thing.’ (Tompkins, 2004).

Courtesy: Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna 2003

Her imagery, which references art history but also the every day, is predominantly abstract, though the drawing process began figuratively: ‘When I was at art school I made a lot of figurative watercolour painting, and it developed into a much more personal language. Perhaps if you see it for the first time its less accessible than the figurative style I was using, but there’s been a continuity. Its just developed over the years really.’

Courtesy: The Modern Institute

                                                                                 

Courtesy: The Modern Institute

Writing on Tompkin’s process of drawing, Katerina Gregos notes that ‘each drawing starts with an idea or a state of mind that is then expressed or explored. Conceived mentally, the execution is quick and to the point. There are no wasted or superfluous decorative elements. Her working process consists primarily of small, suggestive and deliberately unspectacular gestures, which require close inspection, time and effort on the part of the viewer and, even then, defy facile interpretation.’

The influence of Minimalist sculpture is evident in her staging of the drawings. For her solo exhibition at Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York (2003), Tompkins hung a number of works on a large cubicle structure built in the centre of the gallery space. As viewers navigated the structure, the installation unfolded, over time. Tompkins views encountering the structure as ‘a gestalt, un-whole experience’ because ‘only one part of the exhibition would be visible at any one moment’.

Tompkins installs her drawings in relation to a given space, often combining them with wall paintings or sculptural elements (watercolours on balsa wood) – the installation itself becomes an important process. She views the paintings on wood as an ‘attempt to retrieve images of other paintings in my mind. Like Remembering. The paintings feel aged to me already, like I am making ready-made objects and inserting them into history straight away.’

Courtesy: The Modern Institute

References

Extracts from Catriona Black, ‘Becks Appeal’, Sunday Herald online, 6 June 2004; Katerina Gregos, ‘Oh! Replica’, Els Hanappe Gallery, Athens, September, 2003; press release, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, October 2003.

Select Exhibitions

Solo 2003    Andrew Kreps, New York            Oh! Replica, Els Hanappe,            Athens 2002    Giti Nourbaksch, Berlin            The Modern Institute,            Glasgow 2001    Andrew Kreps, New York            Jack Hanley, San Francisco 2000    The Modern Institute,            Glasgow

Courtesy: The Modern Institute

Group

2004    Program III, Rolf Ricke, Cologne (September) 
           Minimalism and After III, Daimler Chrysler, Berlin
           Country Grammar, curated by Ben Harman, GOMA, Glasgow
           Group show, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin Group show, Hotel, London
           Becks Futures 2004, ICA, London
           Works on paper, Spruth Magers Projeckte, Munich
           Invisible Beauty, Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch, Berlin
           Pre-Theatre, Glasgow Project Room
           Becks Futures 2004, CCA, Glasgow (touring)

2003    Contemporary Abstraction, The Print Studio, Glasgow
           Paper Projects, Kate Macgarry, London
           Nursery World, Jennifer Flay Gallery, Paris
           Giti Nourbaksch, Berlin
           ACME, Los Angeles
           The Fragile Underground, Bartwells Institute, London
           Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna

Links

The Modern Institute, Glasgow

Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York

Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco

Catriona Black on Becks Futures 2004

Oh! Replica, Els Hanappe, Athens, 2003

John Beagles, Review, Circa, issue 95, Spring 2004, pp.62-63