Sorcha Dallas

Rob Churm’s monochromatic drawings are composed with equal parts energy and discipline: densely worked cross-hatching and detailed expressionistic forms are anchored by blank space and crisp graphics. The scenes detailed by his pen are various and often surreal: a giant rose crying in the rain, a Japanese symbol being interrogated under a bare bulb, the words ‘lightning bolt’ buoyed up by a knitted Op Art cloud. Most of all, Churm’s work reverberates with the night atmospheres of the Glasgow bars and clubs where he plays a three stringed guitar and sings in an inimitable style for ‘No Wave’ band Park Attack. As the recent past fades, Churm’s posters for dates played by various local bands become recast as artefacts; once useful information concerning names, dates and venues morphs into nostalgic detail. These very specific works join his more abstract drawings, like Untitled (Through the Night, 2005) in generating a sense both of his virtuoso graphic skill, and the scene which his work shapes and is shaped by.
Churm was born In Epping Forest in 1979 and graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Glasgow School of Art in 2001. Recent exhibitions include ‘Not these tones’ (solo) at Glasgow Project Rooms in 2005 and a group show with Seripop at Whitechapel Project Space in January 2007. Churm lives and works in Glasgow.