2017 Catalogue Archive

A quiet yet significant figure in British painting, Gillian Carnegie has a classical approach – she works in oil on canvas and focuses her gaze on landscapes, still-lifes, nudes, and portraits. Carnegie undercuts the realism in her scenes through her impasto paint application and muted tones, presenting paintings drained of both color and life. In this work (named for a character in the Book of Mormon) Carnegie returns to a dried bouquet placed in a cut plastic water bottle, a favorite subject she has been painting since 2001. The make-shift vase’s position against an unusual abstract corner draws the eye in while the sculptural qualities of her painting technique asserts the oil paint’s presence. Represented in numerous public and private collections, Carnegie was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2005 and included in the Tate’s Painting Now: Five Contemporary Artists in 2013.