This month's guest curator is Natasha Hoare - co-curator for The Catlin Art Prize. Natasha also contributes visual art features to Dazed Digital, Nowness, Elephant Magazine, The Gourmand and Don’t Panic. Previous curated shows include CRUX (2011) and Antoglyph: Lukas Strebel (2011). Natasha also conducts guided art walks for lifestyle website Fox and Squirrel.

 

"Curating an online collection from the New Blood website has been an interesting and reflexive process. There are many talented artists here, working across a range of mediums. Flicking from one to another has been like following a meandering train of thought, one abruptly halted now and again by works that have caught my eye for some reason. It is often hard to understand just what makes one respond to a work of art. Those I have selected are united by a subtle and understated beauty. Their muted tones, punctuated by moments of pure colour, creates a collection that I feel is both evocative and moody. Atmospherically these works are linked.

 

I was pleased to see that the tradition of portraiture, in drawing, photography and painting is well represented by the New Blood artists. Malia Petit and Katie Dodsworth both stood out as having something of Alice Neel or Chantal Joffe in their execution and style. Their angular figures with staring eyes are almost uncomfortable, and arresting for it. There are also some beautiful abstract works here by David Ridley and Ben Crawshaw where intersecting geometrical planes and sonorous colours build forms that riff off landscapes and modernist traditions. Landscape itself is also well represented but moved forward from the purely naturalistic. Emma Wilson and Will Jenkinson both deconstruct the spaces around them to create paintings that display technical flair, inventiveness and drama."