WORKPLACE is proud to present SO the first London solo exhibition by Jennifer Douglas.

Douglas’ new work references the found working environments of heavy and light industry and their painterly equivalents within the history of modern and contemporary art. In 2014, Douglas created a work entitled If walls had eyes. The small painting on canvas was painted blue and repeatedly punctured with multiple screw holes and Rawl plugs. Referencing both the Buchi and Tagli (holes and slashes) of Lucio Fontana's paintings and the romantic escape of the dusk sky, this work more specifically referred to a battered old industrial breezeblock wall (photographed by Douglas in a derelict building in Middleborough) that had been recurrently over-painted and drilled into without consideration for aesthetics or meaning. For SO, Douglas has made an entirely new series of monochrome paintings that extend this line of enquiry. The muted tones of industrial floor paint, all pervasive within the architectural modes of display that surround international contemporary art, create a tranquil and opaque surface on canvas. Douglas then repeatedly punctures and scratches the surface through sheets of carbon paper to make a constellation of marks that is both violent and painterly.