NEWS: Auf Wiedersehen @ WORKPLACE

According to Geordie-born artist Robert McNally, there’s no place like home. He expresses this touching sentiment through his work which, unsurprisingly, often borders on that of the comically violent.

Occupying Gateshead’s WORKPLACE Gallery from now until Saturday 29th July, McNally’s collection of brutally vivacious – yet wondrously detailed – drawings portray scenes of dense chaos, absurdity and social tradition. Though he is now stationed in Berlin, this northern ‘ex-pat’ continues to provide a fluent communication of hardy British tradition – his standout work, an incredible depiction of the UK’s biggest night out (2016’s aptly named ‘Black Eye Fridays’), is a flurry of high-heel spikes, whirling fists and spilt drinks, condensed into an almost tapestry-like format.

Whilst this intoxicated imagery does seem a little rough around the edges, it’s impossible to escape the artist’s highly perceptive talent for visual storytelling, as well as his passion for the expression of art itself:

“Art has similarities to the mechanics of mysticism, the currency and value being

largely  subjective,  the  effect  questionable  and  the  interpretation  often  so  utterly

broad  as  to  render  it  almost  meaningless.  But  I  am  able  to  live  by  art’s  honesty

that it is man made, and that I don’t need a medium to explain it to me.”

Whether or not you bask in the simplicity of art, get yourself down to WORKPLACE in the next few weeks – you’ll be sure to clap eyes modern masterpiece.