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Pearl Binder

Pearl "Polly" Binder was born in Salford. Her father was Jacob Binderevski, a Jewish Russian-Ukrainian tailor who came to Britain in 1890 and shortly afterwards became a British citizen. Her mother's name, origins and profession are not recorded in any of the artist's biographies.

In 1937 she married Elwyn Jones. They had three children: fashion historian Lou Taylor, poet Dan Jones, and Mrs Josephine Gladstone. After her death, her son-in-law, Mr Joe Taylor recalled, "She was a woman who had great concern for others, especially women - she was a very keen supporter of women's rights", always keeping the name Pearl Binder next to her husband's name on the plaque outside their flat.

Rachel Howard

Rachel Howard grew up on a farm in Easington, County Durham. She attended a Quaker school from the age of sixteen, and the stories, concerns and questions raised by religion have had a profound effect on her work throughout her career."'I went to a Quaker school and it had such a powerful effect on my life that I’ve carried it with me ever since. I’m an atheist now but Quakerism was the first time as a child I came across a religious structure that made some sense … the silence, contemplation, the acknowledgement of our responsibilities not just to each other but also to nature, they are pacifists. I was quite unruly as a child — Quakerism makes you take responsibility for your own actions without being heavy-handed, it’s subtle and beautiful. The Quakers believe in celebrating the light within, it’ll come as no surprise that James Turrell is a Quaker, for example.'"Howard graduated from Goldsmiths College, London, in 1991.

In 1992, Howard was awarded the Prince's Trust Award to support her art practice. She received the British Council Award in 2008, and in 2004 was shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize.

She had four children in her twenties, which helped her focus in the studio.

In 2008 Howard designed the front cover for The Big Issue newspaper.

The Work[edit]
While Howard more recently employs oil paint, from 1995–2008 she primarily used household paint"'The fluidity of the paint is so gorgeous I felt like I wanted to conquer it and control it.'"Howard allows the paint to separate inside its can so that the pigment and varnish can be used in isolation. The pigment is applied to the edge of the canvas, then diluted and manipulated through the addition of the varnish. Gravity’s pull then draws the paint down the canvas. “The first thing that strikes you about [Howard’s] pictures, [is] this seamless downpour of paint: a vertical torrent that seems to advance from one painting to another, sometimes fading out before it reaches the bottom of the canvas, only to fall unbidden from the upper edge of another."

“Howard’s paintings are built architecturally. The terms she uses are those of the builder: construction, reconstruction, building, layering and assembling. Gravity is her brush. Layers of paint accrue built by dripped pathways of paint." Of her work, Howard says:"'I’m interested in how we each make sense of the world. In paintings such as Missive to the Mad and Missive to the Sad, I use the grid in varying degrees of degradation and dissolution, building up the ground and then the grid only to knock it back using gravity, turps and gloss varnish, a balance between control and chaos. They are odes to madness and melancholia, the gentle slip and slide of life, what the mind can do and where it can lead you. I think that’s why I’m fascinated with religion and human beliefs and what we need to make it all work.'"

Suicide Paintings[edit]
Howard’s Suicide Paintings were first shown at the Bohen Foundation in New york, 2007, and were later exhibited at Haunch of Venison, London, 2008 The series evolved after an acquaintance of Howard’s committed suicide. He was discovered, not in the imagined drama, ‘swinging from the rafters’, but kneeling in a pose almost of prayer. It was this particular detail that Howard found most disturbing, and which led her to create the series, coupled with the fact that for her, suicide is one of the last taboos. The source material for the paintings came from trawling through forensic magazines and internet sites for pictures of suicides. These were then abstracted from their contexts within Howard’s rapidly executed line drawings, forming the basis of the paintings.

The series ultimately offers an investigation into the aesthetics of suicide. Possible instruments of death are depicted – a pair of scissors, a ladder, as well as the symbolic, lone ‘‘Black Dog’’ (a common metaphor for depression, coined by 18th Century writer Samuel Johnson ). Then there are the faceless figures; many hang from ropes, while the body of a woman lying across a bed recalls the psychosexual claustrophobia of Walter Sickert."“Howard’s figures are on the verge of disappearing completely, dangerously close to ceasing to exist even as an image, slipping away from the canvas’s representation: all that remains is the macabre trace of a body, almost as immaterial as a shadow cast upon an empty room.'"Sue Hubbard wrote of the series in The Independent:"“The creation of these ambitious canvases is a psychological and physical battle, which demonstrates that there is still a role for emotionally articulate art that has something important to say about the poignancy and tragedy of the human condition.'"

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2019 L'appel du vide Blain|Southern, New York, US.