Modern Furnishings focuses on two large repeat patterns, silkscreened onto raw cotton. The imagery is sourced from the artist’s studio and immediate surroundings, including a pad of note paper, and bike locks abandoned on a lamppost outside. Digitally these designs could be expanded immeasurably, whereas McDevitt is more interested in exploring what it’s like to make something by hand. In doing so the works take on their own character and idiosyncrasies.  

The original sheets of note paper have been worked over into an ongoing series of drawings the artist refers to as Notes to Self. These works allow the (no longer pertinent) reminders to define the direction of new drawings, as images take form that reference the structure or content of the original transcripts. The artist has also made a new set of two editions, both taken from the sea wall near his mother’s home in eastern Scotland. The rocks which form the protective wall have over time become home to countless plastic bottles, wedged in-between boulders by the waves. These two prints are also repeats, so that in theory they might be combined to make a larger work of any size.

Paul Mcdevitt is a British artist base in Berlin. His practice is focussed primarily on drawing and print, as well as a series of ongoing collaborations with other artists. Since 2011 he has been co-publishing books and records as Infinite Greyscale. In 2015 he founded Farbvision, an interdisciplinary project space that operates from his Berlin studio. McDevitt also collaborates on an irregular series of curated projects as one half of Clarke & McDevitt.

paulmcdevitt.net
farbvision.net
infinitegreyscale.com
clarkeandmcdevitt.com