Yesterday I took a trip down to Bethnal Green to visit The Approach, an art gallery down a quiet road, halfway between the Museum of Childhood and leafy Victoria Park, with the Regents Canal full of narrowboats. It was the first time I have entered an art gallery via a pub, but I was glad that I did, because upstairs in a excellent space for display, were six paintings by Caitlin Keogh, and American artist, born in Alaska and living in New York. I saw some of Caitlin's paintings during the summer in the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and I liked what I saw. They are intricate, weaving varied patterns, colours and styles together in a way that grabs your attention. But they also contain hints and nudges of meaning, a sense of the unexpected and a deliberate juxtaposition of things that you wouldn't expect to find next to each other, something you might find in a surrealist painting by, say, Magritte. I have reproduced here a painting that I photographed at the gallery, so make up your own mind, but I felt I saw a design capability that reminded me of William Morris and his school, and an eye-catching gift for unpredictability that reminded me of surrealism. I was sufficiently impressed to buy a book of her paintings and drawings which is entitled: "Headless Woman with Parrot". I think that says it all.
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