Featured visual artist
Rob Churm
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Rob Churm was a recipient of the Scottish Arts Council Visual Arts Creative and Professional Development Award 2008/09. |
Rob has an upcoming exhibition at GoMA, the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, 21 May - 2 August 2009.
"In light of my upcoming show at GoMA, the impact of the Scottish Arts Council Creative and Professional Development award on my practice has been invaluable. The award has enabled me to spend my full time on my practice.
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I've become a member of the Glasgow Print Studio and my time at the studio has been extremely productive. I've worked quickly with a variety of materials and focused on gaining a knowledge of a number of etching techniques, improving my understanding of the craftsmanship involved in this discipline. |
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I have created a more extensive body of work, in which i have experimented with a variety of approaches to drawing. This has given me the opportunity to identify strengths in the work and consolidate them into ideas, from which I have and will continue to develop. This process has helped me gain a better understanding of my work. This has allowed me to focus on areas of personal interest, so I may become more articulate with regards to my chosen vocation and more confident in its application.
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For my exhibition at GoMA I will show a selection of the etchings produced at the Glasgow Print Studio alongside a selection of drawings. I will be working in the gallery space to produce a wall drawing which will serve as an experiment with my continued understanding and development of my creative practice. |
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Rob Churm’s monochromatic drawings are composed with equal parts energy and discipline: densely worked cross-hatching and detailed expressionistic forms are anchored by blank space and crisp graphics. |
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The scenes detailed by his pen are various and often surreal: a giant rose crying in the rain, a Japanese symbol being interrogated under a bare bulb, the words ‘lightning bolt’ buoyed up by a knitted Op Art cloud.
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Most of all, Churm’s work reverberates with the night atmospheres of the Glasgow bars and clubs where he plays a three stringed guitar and sings in an inimitable style for ‘No Wave’ band Park Attack. |
As the recent past fades, Churm’s posters for dates played by various local bands become recast as artefacts; once useful information concerning names, dates and venues morphs into nostalgic detail. These very specific works join his more abstract drawings, like Untitled (Through the Night) (2005) in generating a sense both of his virtuoso graphic skill, and the scene which his work shapes and is shaped by.
(text by Sarah Lowndes courtesy of the Sorcha Dallas website)
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Biog
Rob Churm lives and works in Glasgow and is represented by Sorcha Dallas. He studied BA (hons) Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art 1998–2001.
Exhibitions 2009
21 May - 2 August - Ethanol Buzzgrid, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
9 - 15 June - Liste Art Fair, Liste, Basel | |