Spin me a yarn:

Ellie Clewlow, David Hockney & Deborah Snell

Exhibition: 1st September - 7th October, 2023

Preview: Thursday 31st August, 5-7:30pm

Let us tell you a tale. Spin me a yarn presents the work of three artists, Ellie Clewlow, David Hockney and Deborah Snell, who playfully retell popular stories from Brothers Grimm and Shakespeare using drawing, printmaking, and sculpture.

Gallagher & Turner are proud to present a series of etchings and aquatints by renowned artist David Hockney, from his series of prints Six Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Hockney’s Illustrations are among the artist’s best-known etchings, conceived over three years and published in 1969. They showcase the artist’s ingenuity for composition, his charm as a draughtsman and his mastery of the medium of print, detailing witty reimaginings of princesses, sorceresses and other characters from the likes of Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin.

Responding directly to Hockney’s illustrations, and making new work specifically for this exhibition, Sunderland-based artist, Ellie Clewlow, works with recycled books to sculpt layered palimpsests. Clewlow, who trained as an archivist and historian, explores the development of fairy tales over time: from the oral tradition of female storytellers, to the female roles shaped by the Grimms, and modern-day feminist retelling of tales by writers like Angela Carter. “These are the stories told about women and those that we tell about ourselves.”

To mark the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s Folio’s first publication, Newcastle artist Deborah Snell, who makes drawings, prints, illustrations, installations, and music videos, has also created new work. Working here in lithography, drawing and puppetry, Snell, as with Hockney, celebrates the macabre side of these moral tales. Well-loved classics, such as As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet and Midsummer Night’s Dream are beautifully drawn with Snell’s love of magic realism.

Gather round and let us spin you a yarn!