Alistair Gow | A Point of Departure, 2023

Aquatint

52 x 65 cm

Edition of 20

Unframed

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Alistair Gow is fascinated with things that present potential: blank spaces, billboards, and pictures hanging on studio or walls and trees are recurring motifs. He creates artworks which invite questions - What is happening here? What could go there? Why has the artist valued this object? How has this been made? The practice of printmaking, particularly the process, the craft, and the community of a workshop, is essential to how Gow thinks about and makes art. Printmaking generally progresses in a structured way that allows continual reflection and decision making. The hand and mind need to work in tandem. Gow tends to leave clues as to how the work has been made, such as slivers of colour in mis-registration of etching plates or cut marks in a woodblock print – for him, the process needs to be evident. The material quality of print is of personal significance and the surface of the paper is often as important as the scene described. The 4 prints submitted present places that Gow travels past regularly on his commute: two images with billboards and two with trees. By highlighting these specific objects in negative space he invites the viewer to bring their own stories and ideas to these places. Gow has used painterly aquatint techniques to depict these real places and explore mark-marking, colour and the printed surface. Gow graduated with a BA Hons from the Glasgow School of Art in 2010 and has worked as a collaborating printmaker at Glasgow Print Studio since 2014.