Whitney McVeigh at A Foundation, London

There is something intriguing about the yellowing pages of old books, and as such, when we came across American-born artist Whitney McVeigh’s latest exhibition we were compelled to found out more.

See more of the work of Whitney MacVeigh

Taking residence in the Shoreditch branch of A Foundation’s Rochelle School, the show features a series of works on found paper, pulled from the bindings of old manuals, encyclopedias and accounting ledgers - upon which, in characteristically impulsive style, McVeigh has torn, cut, painted and drawn - transforming the decaying pages into vivid works of art.

For the work ‘Knots and Splices’ for instance, McVeigh has taken a page from an archaic knotting manual as her cue, before rubbing an inky imprint of a coiled rope onto the surface – producing an intricate interaction between the detailed original sketches and McVeigh’s grubby, playful imprint.

Alongside the found paper pieces, McVeigh will also be showing a series of high energy, inky prints that swing somewhere between abstraction and representation.

9 October 2009 | Art