Vicky White: Art, science and love for animals
Vicky White is Surrey-based artist specialised in highly realistic illustrations of wild and domestic animals. She studied Scientific and Natural History Illustration at the Blackpool and the Fylde School of Art. In 2005 she has completed her master’s degree at the Royal College of Art, London.
Vicky grew her interest in animals while working at the Chester Zoo. She was interested in exotic, native and domestic animals, not only as the art object (or loving creatures that live among us), but she also researched the evolutionary theory and studied old masters.
Vicky works predominately with pencils on panels. Her drawings have extreme documentary character, and materials she uses gave her works almost historical, or even timeless value. She says in the statement on her website: “In the end, I go with whatever I can’t tear my eyes away from. But at the same time, I can never quite shake the notion that the desire to see isn’t the same thing as the right to see, that the subject of my curiosity is someone to whom my motives are redundant. So, however near or far she, he or it is from any mythical or taxonomic ideal, the specificity and actuality of whoever’s stopped me in my tracks is half the point. Beyond that, what I’m interested in is the subtext: the underlying politics of anthropomorphism and anthropodenial, and the balance of power between the creature doing the looking and the creature being looked at.”
Animals included in her works are, amongst others, the tiger, snow leopard, bison, black rhino, okapi, orangutan, crested guineafowl, lobster, bear, wolf, lemur, kangaroo, and bonobo.
Vicky White has been exhibited her work in London, New York, and Brussels, and she published two children’s books with her illustrations – “Can We Save the Tiger?” and “Ape” (by Martin Jenkins).
Read more on Vicky White website
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