Our relationship with Brendan Hansbro goes back over the last fourteen years and we have much to be grateful for. We have a daily reminder of his craftsmanship with the double Unicorn image we use for our gallery logo (designed by Brendan to celebrate the merger of our galleries into one space) and he remains the only artist we nominated for the Villiers David Travel Prize to win it outright in 2000.

Perhaps it was this event more than any other that bonded Brendan and the gallery so tightly together. Brendan chose to travel and draw in New York as his prize and the gallery agreed to show this work in an exhibition which opened on September 11th 2001. We will always, like so many others, remember that day. We were in the gallery hanging these stunning drawings of New York buildings such as the Twin Towers, while the news unfolded. We were all, in particular Brendan, devastated, grieving for the people involved and also for the magnificent buildings so evocatively portrayed by Brendan.

Much time has passed since 2001 and we now, in 2010, have a very different set of works in our gallery. In these drawings, Brendan’s rich imagination has given old apocalyptic imagery a new and contemporary twist. He has drawn inspiration from the apocalyptic engravings of the 14th Century artist Jean Duvet and created drawings based on different chapters from the Book of Revelations. Duvet’s landscapes have been turned into architectural forms. Brendan’s obsession with architecture and the way it can become ‘alive’ becomes apparent. Within intricate brickwork and stone constructions, faces appear and we realise that these architectural forms are actually also portraits. Each drawing is fascinatingly detailed, wonderfully dark and thought provoking. We are both proud and delighted to be showing Brendan’s talent once again.

Jill Hutchings 2010
 

‘Mostra’, The British School at Rome, Italy