Fiction/Fear/Fact

by Howard, Rachel; Beard, Jason; Mendelsohn, Adam E.; Hubbard, Sue

• ISBN13: 9781904212225
• ISBN10: 1904212220
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-01-01
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams

Summary

Published to accompany Rachel Howard’s solo exhibition of new work at Bohen Foundation, New York in June 2007, this book profiles Howard’s paintings and ink drawings on paper. Accompanying this is an insightful interview between Howard and New York-based critic Adam E. Mendelsohn, which explores the new figurative direction Howard’s work is taking, and a hauntingly beautiful poem by critic and poet Sue Hubbard. Howard’s new works incorporate dark shapes of hanging female figures that appear to have been poured onto the canvas, all previous brushstrokes dissolved into a perfectly smooth expanse of paint. Embedded in the saturated colours and glossy surfaces that characterize Rachel Howard’s work, the dire figures set up an uneasy tension between the subject matter and the vibrant physicality of colour, surface and layered depth. The accompanying ink drawings, which are dominated by female suicide, also explore what the artist describes as ‘the beauty of tragedy’. As Howard puts it, suicide seems to be one of the last taboos… shame and guilt and sin; all the things I love and hate.”

Author Biography

Born in County Durham in 1969, Rachel Howard graduated from Goldsmith’s College, London in 1992. She has exhibited in many group exhibitions including ‘The Choice’, Exit Art, New York, 1998; ‘Shimmering Substance’, Cornerhouse, Manchester and Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, 2002, ‘Intuition/(im)precision’, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, 2004 and most recently ‘In the darkest hour there may be light – works from Damien Hirst’s murderme collection’, Serpentine Gallery, London, 2006. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Tightrope’, Shaheen Modern and Contemporary Art, Ohio, 2002; ‘Guilty’, Bohen Foundation, New York, 2003-4; ‘New Paintings’, Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles, 2007 and ‘Fear/Fiction/Fact’, Bohen Foundation, New York, 2007. Forthcoming exhibitions include Museum Van Loon, Amsterdam, Galeria Hilario Galguero, Mexico City and Haunch of Venison, London. Howard lives and works in London.