In her graphite drawings and paintings, Catriona Secker finds inspiration in biology textbooks and vintage natural history tomes. In the drawing above, in particular, the artist said she found inspiration in the reproductive system of a cockroach. Secker, whose work has been exhibited in Hong Kong, Australia, and beyond, is based in Sydney.
“Biology and cell cultures seem to give life to her soft organisms,” Concrete Playground says. “One black and white image is covered in eyes, while in another, two sharp-faceted viruses menace an embryo in a bucolic collection of seaweeds and nematode plants. The embryo is not sleeping. Her coloured works are bloodier. Though none of them are cut open, each image pulses with the fragile blood of embryonic vessels: fragile, transparent, visceral. She combines the plant with the animal: flowering engorged fronds, tentacles and crinolated viscera.”
See more of her work on her Instagram.
