Wayfaring - An exhibition of drawings

Fitzrovia Gallery, London, 18th - 28th October 2023.

UPDATE - Exhibition now closed - thank you so much to everyone who came along, looked so closely, shared their thoughts and bought work!

If you couldn’t make it to the show, but would like a copy of the catalogue, please request a copy by emailing: AlexandraBlumDrawing@gmail.com

I am very excited to announce my solo show ‘Wayfaring - An exhibition of drawings’ at Fitzrovia Gallery, London, 18th - 28th October 2023.

I am thrilled the exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue with an insightful essay by Dr Rachel Sloan, Assistant Curator of Works on Paper, The Courtauld Gallery. Read the essay here.

When: The exhibition will be open daily, 12-6pm, 18th-28th October (closed Monday).

Where: Fitzrovia Gallery, 139 Whitfield Street, London, W1T 5EN.

Artist’s Talk: Join me at 3pm on Saturday 21st October, when I will give a talk in the gallery about how and why I draw. To book your free place please email: AlexandraBlumDrawing@gmail.com

Private View: Wednesday 18th October, 6pm - 8.30pm. I am delighted artist and Royal Academician David Remfry RA will officially open the exhibition at 6.45pm. As numbers for the Private View are limited, RSVP is essential, so please let me know if you would like to join us at the Private View by emailing: AlexandraBlumDrawing@gmail.com

Scroll down to find out more about the show and see some of the drawings I'll be exhibiting - or download the press release.

Two groups of drawings will form the heart of the exhibition.  The first made at home in north London during the pandemic, the second made over the past year, looking out from my fifth floor studio within Westminster Industrial Estate behind the Thames Barrier, London.   

At first glance they are distinct sets of drawings, juxtaposing domestic and industrial experiences of London.  Yet, ‘wayfaring’, as a method of negotiating space, is vital to both.

Anthropologist Tim Ingold defines wayfaring as a process whereby a person moves through a landscape whilst maintaining an ‘active engagement with the country that opens up along [their] path’ (Tim Ingold, Lines, A Brief History, Routledge, 2007; New York and Abingdon: Routledge Classics, 2016, p.78).

It's a description which feels close to the way I mentally travel through space as I draw. I’m discovering each landscape gradually, as if feeling my way through the dark, rather than creating a perspectival plan of the entire space from a fixed viewpoint at the outset of the drawing.

My love of 15th century early Netherlandish painting also guides the drawings.  Especially the compressed space, multiple view points and succession of closely observed details in Robert Campin’s domestic interiors and Rogier van der Weyden's The Seven Sacraments.

Come along to the artist’s talk I will give in the gallery at 3pm on Saturday 21st October to find out more about how these inspiring paintings have informed the spatial structures within my drawings.

Drawings within both groups were made over several days, sometimes weeks or months, so they incorporate changes in season, weather and time of day.

They are also records of the events taking place which I notice whilst drawing. I’m drawing the world 'in progress’ and using my drawing process to reveal the story of place inherent within each location.

I'm excited about exhibiting these two groups of drawings together and it would be wonderful to see you at the show.

If you would like to come to the Artist’s Talk at 3pm on Saturday 21st October, please email AlexandraBlumDrawing@gmail.com to book your free place.

If you would like to join us at the Private View 6-8.30pm on Wednesday 18th October, please RSVP by emailing: AlexandraBlumDrawing@gmail.com.

Hope you’ll drop in and see the exhibition!