Confronting the darker side to food, printmaker Mary Dalton exhibits a series of new works at Nancy Victor Gallery.

Food is essential for life and energy. For millennia it has been intrinsic to human culture and our relationship with it often reveals much about our lives. Yet, food is also a conundrum. For many it is pleasure, comfort or joy but for others it is pain, anguish and hardship, being both greed and hunger.

Through drawing and printmaking, Mary Dalton’s work is informed and enthused by stories and personal life experiences, from teaching the homeless, working at London’s renowned Borough Market to living close by a major pheasant shooting woods. The response is often personal, sometimes political, inspiring her to produce abstract, intricate and often dark narratives. Dalton is not afraid to confront the darker side of our relationship with food letting her works throw new light onto our need for food consumption and the enigma’s it can sometimes cause.

Exhibiting alongside the works will be Dalton’s first book, ‘Embracing the Surplus and the Unwanted’ and several textile pieces. Typeset by the award winning Whittington Press, the book contains numerous hand printed pages and illustrations focusing on our need and waste for food. The textile pieces are an extended canvas from the printing press, a second outcome for a larger narrative. The fragility of embroidery and disembodied figures play homage to and fully encapsulates the spirit of this exhibition and encourages us to think differently about the way we use food in daily life.

Mary Dalton studied printmaking at the Royal College of Art, since graduating in 2008 she has continued to work as an artist and collaborative printmaker in studios across the country. Most recently she was Senior Studio Printmaker at the world famous Curwen Lithography Studio, her time here saw her work with Stanley Jones, MBE. Dalton currently lives and works in Hampshire.