Peel open the cover and you may find yourself in a more-than-human world dream cosmos among sentient, super-intelligent human-animals unfolding from the the hand and mind of interstellar artist and illustrator Penny Davenport.
Expectant and melancholic eyes stare out from the pages, short furred, spectral creatures gather together in the liminal lacuna somewhere between here and elsewhere. Are these dream memories of our own lost parents, our grandparents, our distant aunts and uncles as we might wish to remember them? Gentle bears, yearning dogs, eccentric marsupials, out of reach but also reassuringly nearby.
The concept of infinite reincarnation means that all living creatures we meet on any given day were once our mothers and fathers, our sisters and brothers, that all beings are interconnected more deeply than we can imagine, emphasising the need for compassion in all interactions and making these artworks your family portraits and mine.
Best known for intricate and labour-intensive drawings that fill the paper with minutely detailed pen strokes, in recent years Penny Davenport has also developed a painting practice that extends her interest in enigmatic, otherworld possibilities. Davenport's illustrations are mostly populated by almost-familiar creatures, often in small groups, whose feelings and relationships have a curious ambiguity. Much like all creatures, Davenport's creations are alive, complicated and unresolved.
Born In Scotland 1979, Penny Davenport grew up in the north and south of the UK before moving to Liverpool in 1999 to study Fine Art. Davenport’s artwork was also used by the exceptional music selectors and NTS legends Time Is Away for their compilation album Searchlight Moonbeam.