Anna McNay

Whitwell

Assistant Editor at Freelance

Writer Editor Curator #thecriticwiththedog @artfund @studiolatest @IntSculptureCtr @fluxexhibition @Norwegian_Arts @AICA_UK @NUJofficial @uknmwa

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Articles

Review of Annabel McCourt: I'm Sorry

1 week ago | annamcnay.art | Anna McNay

18/06/2520-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe, supported by Arts Council England in conjunction with Barnsley Civic12 April – 5 July 2025I grew up with Section 28. I wasn’t allowed to speak in an Amnesty International assembly for 11- to 14-year-olds about death sentences being given to homosexuals around the globe.
‘Cut. You say I. And I bleed’: Words as Wounds in the Work of Brooke Leigh

2 weeks ago | annamcnay.art | Anna McNay

08/06/25Cut. You say I. And I bleed. I am outside … I no longer have what I once had … You’re not there any more … I still want to have … To hold on to what is going to disappear … The body, here.
End frame: Road from Abiquiú (1964-68) by Georgia O’Keeffe

1 month ago | onlandscape.co.uk | Anna McNay

Anna McNay is an art writer, editor and curator based in the woods of Hertfordshire, UK. She has considerable experience of writing catalogue essays, as well as reviews, profiles, interviews and features for online and print publications. She frequently conducts live interviews and hosts and speaks on panels at galleries and art schools.
Helen Chadwick: Life Pleasures

1 month ago | studiointernational.com | Anna McNay

Helen Chadwick’s unwillingness to accept any binary division of the world allowed her to radically explore the mechanisms of the body – physically, emotionally, sensually, sexually and sensorially Helen Chadwick, Piss Flowers, 1991-2. Installation at Frieze, 2013. © Estate of Helen Chadwick. Courtesy of Richard Saltoun Gallery, London, Rome and New York. Photo: Peter White.
Catharsis: A Grief Drawn Out - book review

1 month ago | studiointernational.com | Anna McNay

To what extent can the visual language of grief be translated? Janet McKenzie looks back over 20 years’ worth of drawings in search of words Catharsis: A Grief Drawn Out by Janet McKenzie, published by Birlinn Limited, 2025. reviewed by ANNA McNAY “Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick,” writes Susan Sontag in her essay Illness as Metaphor.1 Not everyone, however, knows what it is like to use the “bad passport” early in life.
Edvard Munch Portraits

Mar 31, 2025 | studiointernational.com | Anna McNay

The artist’s portraits have flown under the radar, but getting to know his sitters reveals a lot about Munch himself Installation view, Edvard Munch Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London, 2025. © David Parry.
Mickalene Thomas: All About Love

Feb 24, 2025 | studiointernational.com | Anna McNay

Glittering, shimmering, dazzling: Thomas’s eye-catching works have more to them than meets the eye, speaking of Otherness and institutional racism, but also offering a complex and empowering vision of Black womanhood Mickalene Thomas, Afro Goddess Looking Forward, 2015. Rhinestones, acrylic, and oil on wood panel, 60 x 96 in (152.4 x 243.8 cm). © Mickalene Thomas.
Hélène de Beauvoir: The Woman Destroyed

Feb 19, 2025 | studiointernational.com | Anna McNay

The lesser-known of two successful sisters is given her rightful place in 20th-century history thanks to an assiduous gallerist and loyal friend Hélène de Beauvoir. Amar Gallery, London 23 January – 30 March 2025 by ANNA McNAY As an only child, I have never known the misery of being a second child destined to only ever be second best. This was something Hélène de Beauvoir (1910-2001) lived with from the day she was born.
Iconic: Portraiture from Francis Bacon to Andy Warhol

Feb 11, 2025 | studiointernational.com | Anna McNay

There are no buts! This small exhibition at the Holburne Museum in Bath has considered every angle and every detail and the result truly is a bijou gem Iconic: Portraiture from Francis Bacon to Andy Warhol, installation view, Holburne Museum, Bath. Photo: Jo Hounsome. Holburne Museum, Bath 24 January – 5 May 2025 by ANNA McNAY An exhibition on portraiture at the Holburne Museum, renowned for its 18th-century collection? Hmm, so what’s new?
Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious

Jan 17, 2025 | studiointernational.com | Anna McNay

This delightful if dark exhibition brings ‘Mrs Eric Ravilious’ out of the shadow of her husband, ensuring that, in future, she is known in her own right as Tirzah Garwood Tirzah Garwood, Etna, 1944. Oil on canvas. Image courtesy of Fleece Press/Simon Lawrence.