Owls, Bats and Cats

Somaya Critchlow's drawings and paintings of Black women, and in particular the Black female nude, investigate the sensuality and pleasure that accompanies looking and being looked at. In a recent review of Critchlow's exhibition at Maximillian William gallery, Hilton Als observed: 'Critchlow's figures don't mind being looked at. That makes them feel alive in a prohibitive world where we can be "cancelled" if we say too much, see too much, eat too much, etc. Her characters are voluptuaries who make us feel that way too. They live inside their flesh and inside Critchlow's imagination-- a place you want to live in too.' Critchlow often works in a small scale enhancing the sense of intimacy that accompanies her subjects who typically stare out confidently, fully embodied subjects of their private arenas. Critchlow is a keen student of art history long fascinated by artists like Francisco Goya and William Hogarth, to whom she gestures in the motifs that accompany some of her women, among them owls, bats and cats as in this drawing from 2024.