Desk

Merging figurative and abstract techniques, British painter Phoebe Unwin transforms everyday objects into dreamlike apparitions. In Desk (2008), she explains, ‘I wanted to make the shape and size of the canvas part of the subject of the painting. The A4 paper and folder silhouettes are arranged around the edges of the painting, making the painting itself operate as a desk in scale and composition. In this arrangement I was interested in the combined connotations of the everyday, design and abstract painting. The blue spray paint has an industrial feel to it and an energy of quickness and irreverence, compared with the layers of painted marks and silver leaf built up below’. Unwin’s inclusion in the Saatchi Gallery’s 2009 exhibition Newspeak: British Art Now at the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg propelled her into the public eye, leading to solo shows in London, Europe and America. Her works are currently held in museum collections including Tate, London; the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.