Private View Friday 3rd February 7-9pm upstairs at The Art Shop, Cross Street

Themes which were introduced in Magical Thinking (The Art Shop Oct 2013), of children’s clothing and of safe-keeping, are expanded upon in Carapace.

Philippa Robbins’ imagination is populated with corvids, “the dark stars of the bird world,” with puppets, imaginary worlds and relics of infancy which probe primal and uncanny dimensions, and recall the delights and fears of childhood.

Her paintings are hard-won and emerge after much editing and process, but drawing is always at the start of every piece of work and serves as an intimate clue to the workings of a mind which impresses with its sheer originality. Elementary, common, childhood experiences are transferred into adult existence, not just through motifs and personal and scavenged imagery, but through her artistic mode of thought. Being so layered, the resulting works seem at once to be both removed from and more closely woven to their original subjects, like a pressed flower or a film still.

Philippa Robbins lives and works in south Wales. Born in London in 1964, she studied at LaSalle SIA, Singapore and then at Cardiff College of Art. Her work has been exhibited widely, nationally and internationally, in both solo and group shows.