After The Flood: David Surman

Surman’s bold, vital, subtly-affecting images of animals, are infused with elements of personal memory, anthropomorphic projection, ancient mythology, and the subversive aesthetics of cuteness.

Two intrepid mules climb a mountain as the sun goes down. An anxious-eyed dog scans the horizon, ready for anything. A bashful pony looks up through its eyelashes. These are not just animals, but performers.

There is, in Surman’s work, always a sense of drama, of emotional excitement and engagement.

Surman creates his images from memory. He knows his subjects well; he grew up amidst livestock and nature on farms in Devon and Scotland. He recognises the large, and often exuberant, personalities of dogs and horses and birds. And he catches in them reflections of people he knows.