LORNA MCINTOSH
SELVEDGE
LORNA MCINTOSH
SELVEDGE
5-29 September 2018 PRIVATE VIEW Tuesday 4 September, 6.30 – 8.30pm www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/lornamcintosh ARTIST TALK Saturday 22 September, 11am Please RSVP
Front cover: Selvedge 6/3, 2018 (cat. 3) (detail) Back cover: Between the seen and the unseen, 2018 (cat. 5) (detail)
Photography: Detail Framing Studio
Lorna McIntosh RSA (b.1974) Lorna McIntosh studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art, graduating with BA Hons in 1995 and an MFA in 1997 and was elected as a member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 2012. She has won numerous awards, including the John Kinross (1997) and Salvesen (2002) travel scholarships from the Royal Scottish Academy. In 2011, a Residencies for Scotland Award from the RSA/ Creative Scotland allowed Lorna to spend three months as artist-in-residence at Balmungo House by St Andrews, the former base of the Barns-Graham Charitable Trust. Public collections include: Royal Academy, London Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Edinburgh College of Art Art in Healthcare Scotland Alastair Salvesen Trust
My work relates to ideology from the 17th and 18th centuries. The work, although highly personal, is informed by my research which encompasses the work of Goethe; 18th century chemistry; early palaeontology; mineralogy and emblematics. I explore the connections and affinities between my different areas of research and issues of a more personal nature. The resulting work has layers of meaning – personal, philosophical and relating to the physical world. These works primarily relate to research into early natural philosophy – in particular, Francis Bacon’s 17th Century work ‘Novum Organum’ – and its connections to other areas of my research. Bacon viewed nature as a labyrinth through which science could provide a pathway: “A method rightly ordered leads by an unbroken route through the woods of experience to the open ground of axioms”. In Goethe’s ‘Elective Affinities’ human relationships are compared to chemical affinity reactions, and a country estate with its many boundaries and pathways represents a closed reaction chamber, or a life to be navigated. Another scientific blueprint for enlightenment. Lorna McIntosh, 2018
1 The walls are air, 2018 oil on Arches paper, 57 x 77 cm
2 An unknowable boundary, 2018 oil on Arches paper, 57 x 77 cm
3 Selvedge 6/3, 2018 oil on Arches paper, 57 x 77 cm
4 Through the woods of experience, 2018 oil on Arches paper, 57 x 77 cm
5 Between the seen and the unseen, 2018 oil on Arches paper, 57 x 77 cm
6 The walls went on for years and years, 2018 oil on Arches paper, 57 x 77 cm
7 To the open ground of axioms, 2018 oil on Arches paper, 57 x 77 cm
8 The uncertain light of the senses, 2018 oil on Arches paper, 57 x 77 cm