Somewhere (solo retrospective)

This retrospective solo exhibition provided Woodfine with the opportunity to present drawings made between 2001 and 2007 as an installation in a government funded gallery in Norway, which shows regional, national and international work. She was proposed for the show by the Norwegian curator, writer and critic Trond Borgen, who reviewed her previous exhibition at the same gallery in 1999 (Stavanger Aftenbladet 2000).

'Somewhere' represents Woodfine’s research, conducted over a number of years including three spent travelling and studying in Norway. During this period Woodfine explored Norwegian culture through its isolated, religious communities and architecture particularly the Medieval stave churches that she used to create imaginary worlds, combining the familiar and the fantastic, often drawing on childhood memories. All her work centres on drawing and this exhibition enabled her to showcase the work, which explores notions of two- and three-dimensionsionality.

Although some of the work was especially created for the space, much was the result of commissions from museums notably ‘Cloud and Vision,’ an exploration of William Blake’s ten-year residence in Lambeth (4th July – 4th September 2005); ‘Exhumed’ (11th July – 31st August 2003) and ‘A Month in the Garden’ created for the Museum of Garden History, London and commissioned by the Parabola Trust (1st July – 29th July 2001). ‘Only – Make – Believe’ was created for a group exhibition curated by Marina Warner concerning childhood and play, held at Compton Verney (25th March – 5th June 2006). This was Compton Verney’s first thematic exhibition and included works loaned from Tate Britain, the Bodleian Library, the American Folk Art Museum and The National Galleries of Scotland