Meet 2 New Artists: Naomi McClure and Morag Caister

Meet 2 new graduate artists:

2020 Gray's School of Art graduate Naomi McClure doesn’t shy away from the macabre, creating semi-abstract work that explores a very modern folk tale that bespeaks our celebrity-obsessed culture. The series title, "July 3, 1971, 17 Rue Beautreillis Paris", references the untimely death of Jim Morrison at 27 – the mysterious age in which many notable cultural figures have also passed away. What does it mean that society memorialises, idealises, and mystifies these figures as more-than-human? McClure’s circuitous work – each piece acts as an inspirational blueprint for the next – holds up our notions of ceremony, memory, and linkage right where we cannot deny them. A unique process of layering oil over wood is used, that consequently achieves a textural angularity that cannot fully be placed. Strangely, what’s implied are both ghostly spaces with a depth of field, but also pure abstractions of colour and light.
Morag Caister’s work depicts human nature in all its glory, chaos, and vulnerability. Her figural compositions use loose brushwork to draw attention to the ways our bodies and faces often reveal our innermost emotions. The deep affection she has for her subjects is palpable; unassuming figures on their commutes home are given Caister’s full attention, where their worries and dreams are given centre stage. Abstracted from their surroundings, emphasis is on the eyes, the hands, and what the most minimal of mark-making can convey. The effect is both intriguing and touching, as Caister particularly using colours such as golden yellows to add an underlying warmth to pieces. Between her graphic and painterly work, she asks the viewer to think about thinking itself – how even in our most private moments, we are often closer to each other than we think.

From Series: "July 3, 1971, 17 Rue Beautreillis Paris." III. by Naomi McClure