Watercolour Heads: Exhibition 'Someone I Know' by Andrew Carnie.

British artist Andrew Carnie is one of the artists whose work at the intersection of art and science has directly inspired the RSU Anatomy Museum to develop as a space where anatomy engages with art. We are delighted to welcome him back this year with his watercolour series 'Someone I Know', created over several years. At first glance, these works may resemble the images produced by modern radiological examinations, familiar to a medically trained eye. Yet Carnie goes beyond visible anatomy and physiology, inviting viewers to look deeper into the head – into the realm of the psyche, into processes that no radiological method has yet been able to reveal.

The exhibition will be on view until December 27 of this year.

A Few Words on the Watercolour Heads
Andrew Carnie

I began painting a series of watercolours as a solution to spending too much time on the computer, making large-scale video projection pieces. The work on the computer was not physical and took many hundreds of hours. I needed something more material and quicker, with more instant rewards; the watercolours were the answer. Over the past ten years, I have created series after series of watercolours. I also like the process as I don't have to wash the brushes between sessions. This series, 'Someone I Know' started as a visual response to problems with my right eye, which ended up with a detached retina and an operation to repair the eye, involving laser repair surgery and a vitrectomy. The works were an emotional response; the potential loss of sight would be huge to someone like me with an addiction to the visual. The result of producing this particular set was to produce a space, a platform, the outline head, to make other drawings which reflected on matters that go on in our bodies, and our minds. A couple of things that seem important to me are that in working with the head space, I have found a space, an almost theatrical space to explore myself through ideas in science, a poetry of being present and alive. The works reflect many of the ideas that have come to me from my twenty years of work making the large projection pieces and other outcomes with scientists. They reference scans of various forms, MRI and CT, and sometimes more particular things like our microbiome, brain science, and the anatomy of the body.

Andrew Carnie^[1] is an internationally exhibiting contemporary visual artist practising in the UK. His main concerns focus on the interface of art and science, often working in collaboration with scientists. His approach is media agnostic, using methodologies and media as informed by the context, concepts, and concerns. Drawing, painting, and sculpting have an enduring place in his practice, but video, projection, and installation are his primary strengths. He creates endlessly fascinating environments around subjects, like heart transplants, metabolism, and neurological conditions that intrigue him, and engages audiences in how we see ourselves through the world of science.

         He studied at Goldsmiths, then the Royal College of Art, London and was a Picker Fellow at Kingston University. His practice has been supported by the Arts Council England, the Wellcome Trust, the AHRC, UK, and the SHRC, Canada, and he has exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally. Being shown at the Science Museum, London, the Natural History Museum, Rotterdam, The Museum of Design, Zurich, Exit Art, New York, the Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, USA, The Great North Museum, Newcastle, the Pera Museum, Istanbul, the Dresden Hygiene Museum, Germany, the Moravská Galerie, Brno, Czech Republic, and the Daejeon Museum of Art, South Korea, amongst many others.

         Recent work has been shown at the Fundación Telefónica, Madrid, the CCCB, Barcelona, the Centro de Historias de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, the Brain Observatory, San Diego, the Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, the RSU Anatomical Museum, Riga, the Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas, the Old Operating Theatre, London, and the Portsmouth Museum and Gallery, Portsmouth.

www.andrewcarnie.uk

@andrew_carnie_studio_artist

^[1] This description is taken from:

Andrew Carnie – Someone I Know. Exhibition catalogue. Ken Artspace, London, 30 May – 22 June 2024. Texts by John Hayes, Rob Kesseler, and Yutong Zhang. Design by Alexander J. Carnie, additional design by Mark Segal. ISBN 978-1-0687481-1-0.