The two artists currently on show at the James Freeman Gallery on Upper Street do not initially seem to be a natural pairing.
Douglas McDougall’s charcoal-on-paper works are dense, realistic portraits of melancholic men gazing out of balaclavas.
Conversely, Simone Pellegrini uses mixed media to create organic and erotic forms on paper that look like ancient parchment.
Despite having wholly disparate visual styles, McDougall and Pellegrini’s work is exhibited together, under the title “The Unseen”.
According to the catalogue, this is because they are “two artists who use their work to give form to hidden experiences and ideas.”
Douglas McDougall
Glasgow-born McDougall’s drawings adhere to this theme because the subjects are partially hidden by balaclavas.
By stripping away the distraction of hair and background, their faces serve as a portal, focused insight into their emotional state and experience. They are portraits of unnamed outsiders, and each work is titled only by numbers.
The vascular skin and abraded features are rendered in almost photographic realism, yet around the heads, the charcoal has a softened quality that serves to highlight the form.
Rufus Knight-Webb, whose gallery has previously hosted McDougall’s work, observed that the artist spent much of his time alone. This introverted attitude is something that has clearly been transferred to his subjects.
They are cocooned and isolated in cloth, with no outside intervention. The artist specified that each piece must be shown without a frame. While this might be nerve-wracking for the gallery, it is indicative of the stripped-back meaning of these powerful portraits.
Simone Pellegrini
The work exhibited by Bologna-based Pellegrini is thematically tied to “hidden experience and ideas.” The work forces the viewer to consider ideas that are not physically visible, rather than focus on subjects that may have been ignored.
Pellegrini’s works are monoprints on paper, which he then hand-colours and distresses with oil to create a sense of age. It seems to describe a parody or parallel of a belief system, arcane and esoteric.
The graphic arrangements echo a medieval imagination and are reminiscent of the cryptic 15th century Voynich Manuscript with its biological and cosmological illustrations.
The swelling organic forms and sexual imagery also take on machine-like attributes, with cogs and tubes. His imagery is filled with pathways and diagrams, appearing like an instructional map for reaching arcadia. The work depicts Dante-esque symbols and structures where groups of figures wander lost, consumed by complexity.
These two artists complement each other in the white-walled gallery. The busy work of Pellegrini and the calmness of McDougall’s pieces strike an interesting balance.
The exhibition is up until 6 April.
