Steve Cox, My Little Faun, 2013, Acrylic, water-based, oil paint, collage and gouache on paper, 59 x 42cm

In his exhibition Zoo, Cox will present an exclusive body of work. As Cox explains:

The creatures featured in this exhibition are purely invented. They have emerged from my unconscious during the early stages of each work. I have looked for the forms which are suggested within the chance flow of ink and watercolour on the page, which is gradually ‘fixed’ or refined via many subsequent layers of watercolour, or gouache. All of the images have depended upon chance and accident, which has played a large role in process. The images take on lives and identities of their own during their emergence. As a consequence the beings are variably comical, pitiable, monstrous etc, depending on the suggestions I have found in the washes of watercolour.

 To me, these creatures seem to be caught somewhere between the animal state and the human state. I am pleased when they start to evoke elements of human emotion and frailty within their expressions. They might remind us that we are also a part of the animal kingdom. I identify quite strongly with many of these creatures. For the most part they appear ragged, threadbare and flawed, and with all the frailty and shortcomings of us humans. Just like us, they are not quite, but better than, perfect.