Rachel Howard and Frank Auerbach: Noise

Bringing together prints by Frank Auerbach and Rachel Howard, this exhibition creates a dynamic dialogue between two generations of artists through shared themes of mortality, relationships, and the human body. By pairing Auerbach’s celebrated, psychologically dense etchings with Howard’s expressive, graphic woodcuts, the showcase highlights the striking parallels and technical contrasts in how each artist pushes the traditional boundaries of printmaking. Drawn from newly acquired works in the Gallery’s collection, this compelling juxtaposition ultimately reveals the enduring power of the medium to capture the raw complexities of the human experience.

In printmaking ‘noise’ refers to the accidental ink residue, where the ink catches on rough or un-carved areas of a woodblock or plate during relief printing.

Rachel Howard

Rachel Howard (b.1969) is a Contemporary British artist, born in County Durham. In the early 1990s she earned her Fine Art and Critical Theory degree from Goldsmith’s College, and became widely recognised for her abstract and figurative painting. Printmaking has long been part of her practice, her ‘Crash’ series featuring in this exhibition of prints many of her younger sister and long standing muse were made after a severe car accident when the artist was left physically broken for several months and could only gently carve these woodblocks. Bold and confronting they explore the complexities of the human condition, encompassing themes of violence, beauty, loss and life.

“The act of carving is so satisfying but also unforgiving not unlike the process of making my drawings. The subject matter consists of recurring images that I use in my drawings and figurative paintings, the bridge, the body, suicide, my sister, … violence and beauty, the intimate and the distant, as with all my work be it figurative or abstract its dealing with what it is to be human.” – Rachel Howard 2016

Frank Auerbach

Frank Auerbach (1931-2024) arrived in Britain in 1939 as a child refugee from Nazi Germany. He studied at St Martin’s School of Art (1948-1952) before attending The Royal College of Art (1952-1955), where he first developed his interest in drypoint etching. Following his studies, Auerbach pushed the medium further, using non-traditional tools, such as nails. Scratching directly into the metal plates, he captured the memory of his regular sitters. Shown in this exhibition, his prints of Ruth and expressive figure studies highlight his raw, energetic mark-making and deep connection to his subjects.