AFTER ALASDAIR GRAY (SCOTTISH 1934-2019)
ALASDAIR GRAY/MALCOLM HOOD EXHIBITION POSTER
Poster print, after an original ink drawing
the sheet 93cm x 42cm (36.5in x 16.5in), unframed 
Carole Gibbons was born in Glasgow in 1935, and continues her art practice from her studio there to this day. A student of the Glasgow School of Art and member of The Young Glasgow Group collective, Gibbons was the first living female artist to be exhibited at Glasgow's Third Eye Centre. Despite a long and critically well-regarded career, with works featured in many institutional collections around the UK, Gibbons' work is only now really achieving the recognition it deserves. She was recently included in Tate's critically acclaimed exhibition Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990. In 2023 her solo show at Celine, Glasgow was rated in Frieze Magazine's top ten shows of 2023. She has exhibited in New York and London in recent years, having recently been taken on by Hales Gallery, London, who are exposing her work to a new generation of collectors. As Hales note in their artist's biography, she has long been championed by artists Lucy Stein, Andrew Cranston, poet JF Hendry, art historian Susannah Thompson and her friend, the writer and artist Alasdair Gray. Here, Gray uses a likeness of his friend and colleague as a compelling image to encourage attendance at his joint exhibition of work with Malcolm Hood. It demonstrates the truth to The Guardian's claim that, ‘a peculiarity of Gray’s graphic work is that it sometimes appears at its best in reproduction.’ The portrait, even in reproduction, is sympathetic, bold and compelling.