Reinventor: Derek Boshier

In 7 Self Portraits, Boshier reassembles his artistic output, themes, and contexts and, in-so-doing, redefines the notion of a self-portrait. In what Boshier terms “Archival Self-Portraits” his journey is presented as a visual narrative that charts especially transformative years, intertwining life and art. Each distinct work is intricately woven with images and themes from a specific year, providing an intimate, somewhat polymorphic, depiction of self. 

Sit/ Stand/ Knell – Global Warming, The Factory, and The Saints are simultaneously personal and universal; complex subjects are tackled with as much delicacy and honesty as their pencil on paper depiction. Outlines of figures are suspended in seas of leaves, clouds, swirling lines of abstraction, and crucifixes, their insides a visual tableaux of activity.

The exhibition coincides with a survey exhibition of Boshier’s work at Wolverhampton Art Gallery Derek Boshier: Image in Revolt and the publication of a major new monograph Derek Boshier: Reinventor, published by Lund Humphries, edited by Helen Little, and featuring commentaries and reflections by leading contemporary artists, academics, curators and writers.