Rachel Duckhouse: Inside Up

Glasgow Print Studio is delighted to present Inside Up, a solo exhibition of new work by Rachel Duckhouse.

 

Duckhouse's printmaking practice focuses on etching and drawing, inspired by the physical and psychological experience of being in a particular place at a particular time. She draws from the architecture of interior and exterior landscapes, and the patterns and geometries within them.

Inside Up presents etchings inspired by a two-month residency in autumn 2024 at the University of Alberta's Printmaking Faculty, where Duckhouse was Artist in Residence.

The interior of the University's Fine Arts Building - a 1970s brutalist brick-and-concrete structure with a central staircase - is connected by pedways to adjoining faculties. The North Saskatchewan River runs past the University from its source in the Saskatchewan Glacier in the Rocky Mountains. Duckhouse split her time between the interior of the building and the river system beyond.

Features within the building's interior, such as staircases, wall textures and ceiling structures, are recalled as intertwined with the river system, including the leafy river valley, waterfalls and receding glacier. Through the filter of printmaking, ideas of suspension (aquatint/rock flour) and erosion (etching/glaciers) emerge. Hard-ground etchings on copper are drawn by hand using ruler and stencil, while repeated motifs are hand-coloured with Indian ink and brush (Waterwall) or pen and ink (Quarterfall). Plates of polished brass are cut, inked and printed in layers (Lights Up).

Duckhouse was awarded the inaugural June Carey Scottish Printmaking Award at the Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition in 2025. Production of this exhibition has been supported by the prize, which includes a year's membership at Glasgow Print Studio. The artist wishes to thank June Carey, Glasgow Print Studio and the RSA for the vital support the award has provided.

Rachel Duckhouse is an artist-printmaker living and working in Glasgow. She studied at Leeds College of Art and Winchester School of Art. She has undertaken artist residencies in Cornwall, France, the Outer Hebrides, Canada and Australia, and has worked on public art commissions including the entrance gates of Edinburgh Printmakers. Her work has been acquired by the British Museum, Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.