Michael Craig-Martin at the New Art Centre, UK

'Umbrella' in orange and blue by Michael Craig-Martin, on show at Roche Court's New Art Centre in Wiltshire, UK

(Image credit: TBC)

last updated 5 August 2022

Michael Craig-Martin's drawings on paper have been garnering hype of late - thanks to a current show at London's Alan Cristea Gallery - but it's his drawings in the air that are really stopping us in our tracks.

On show at Roche Court's New Art Centre in Wiltshire, the umbrellas, gate, hammer and light bulb may in fact be sculptures, but when rendered in a stark, brightly coloured outline in 3D, they look like an extraordinary fusion of comic book with real life.

The 70-year-old artist is known for the mechanical way he conjures everyday forms, without inflection or any sense of his own hand in his work. 'I've always wanted to make drawings that were absolutely style-less,' he says. His simple artistic vocabulary allows him to explore notions of form, function, and perspective with a powerful economy of means, conveyed all the more strongly with the sheer scale of these new works.

Alongside the sculptures, the New Art Centre is also showing a series of new paintings by the Dublin-born artist - multi-layered compositions of letters and objects that combine to characteristically perplexing effect.

'Umbrella (blue)' by Michael Craig-Martin

Inside the New Art Centre gallery is a new series of paintings by Michael Craig-Martin, including 'SEX'

ADDRESS

New Art Centre
Roche Court
East Winterslow
Salisbury
Wiltshire SP5 1BG

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

TOPICS

Malaika Byng is an editor, writer and consultant covering everything from architecture, design and ecology to art and craft. She was online editor for Wallpaper* magazine for three years and more recently editor of Crafts magazine, until she decided to go freelance in 2022. Based in London, she now writes for the Financial Times, Metropolis, Kinfolk and The Plant, among others.