Donald Urquhart

Donald Urquhart began making his iconic pen and ink drawings as posters and fliers for the London performance-art and drag-club scene of the 1980s and 90s where he was a key figure in Leigh Bowery’s circle. His most frequent protagonists are starlets of yesteryear such as Judy Garland and Bette Davis, often paired with darkly humorous quips–social commentary through the lens of Hollywood glamor and gothic camp. Marked by a graphic simplicity and draughtsman-like finesse, his black and white illustrations are tinged with bittersweet resilience. Joan Crawford Alphabet (2007), for example, assigns each letter of the alphabet with a word or phrase associated with the actress’s psychologically dark career and personal life, beginning  with "A is for Axe."

Urquhart’s work has been exhibited at institutions such as White Columns in New York,  Saatchi Gallery in London, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco, Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, and The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, among others.