Louise Lawler, No Drones, Sprueth Magers London

For their latest exhibition, Louise Lawler: No Drones, Sprueth Magers take a look at a new direction for this prolific art-recording photographer: her ‘tracings’ 

Part of ‘pictures generation’, photographers might be familiar with Louise Lawler’s practice that has fascinated the art world since the 1970’s. Her work has focused on photographing other artists’ artworks in the context in which they are viewed. By shifting photographic perspective from the subject to different vantage points, the viewer’s perception of the work is altered.  

The exhibition

For her latest exhibition at Sprueth Magers, Lawler will exhibit a group of ‘tracings’, made in collaboration with the artist and children’s book illustrator Jon Buller. Taken directly from her photographs, the tracings constitute black-and-white line drawings converted to a vector graphic and printed on vinyl. 

Critical view

Existing as representations of other works, whilst also works in their own right, the tracings are conceptually intriguing, yet exquisitely ethereal. Arguably, the most captivating of them all is a large wall-sized tracing of her iconic work Pollock and Tureen from 1984, a photograph depicting part of a Jackson Pollock above a porcelain soup tureen. Here the ephemeral meets the magnificent. Catch it while you can.