Dig: Harry Spike | Curated by Eva Karkut-Law
Forthcoming exhibition
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Opening 5 February, 6 - 8pm
Cob Gallery presents Dig, the debut solo exhibition by Harry Spike, curated by Eva Karkut-Law.
The title Dig refers to both the physical and psychological act of digging. Spike was raised in the Peak District and its folklore, language and landscape are recurring sources of inspiration for him. Placenames lend titles to Spike’s work such as Hob Hurst’s House, a bronze age burial mound, and Dove Hole’s, an area with a history of limestone quarrying and mining. These places have very literally been sites of digging and now are rendered in gouache and ink by Spike, paintings punctuated by male figures who both rest upon the picture plane and bleed into the landscape, crouching, kneeling and reaching down to the earth, encased in caskets or being prepared for burial. Dig also refers to Carl Jung’s “digging method”, a structured, meditative approach to the exploration of the unconscious. Through a guided visualization of digging, a person is encouraged to traverse doors, tunnels, and caves, to navigate their inner psychic landscapes, engaging with archetypal figures to uncover symbolic material. This method functions as a deliberate and conscious engagement with the subconscious, facilitating the development of creative insight and a more nuanced, authentic understanding of the self.
Spike states, “rather than being a premeditated focus of inquiry, themes and motifs gradually surfaced through the process. Then, as I realized the direction the works were asking me to go—which happened to be back up north, to the landscape in which I grew up—I allowed it to grow, giving permission for this imagery to enter new pieces”.
There is a distinct narrative element to Spike’s work, he takes inspiration from personal experiences, folk stories, his dream journals and even snippets of overheard conversation. By painting or drawing aspects of these stories, Spike isolates and focuses on the themes and imagery of his own life. He also takes visual language from art historical narrative based paintings like Early Renaissance altarpieces and the murals of the Ellora and Ajanta caves. These combined narrative elements lend a storyboard like quality to Spike’s work, drawings that when viewed sequentially provoke the eye to seek linear narrative that ultimately remains elusive. Instead the works operate through a crossing over of time and experiences.
Materials and surfaces are pushed and played with by Spike. Using gouache, ink, pastel, acrylics, and oils on paper, board, and canvas - he employs a process of addition and erasure to create a gradual build-up of form, light, and color. Layers of paint are applied and then scraped off leaving a ghostly wash of colour. Conte crayons are used like watercolors and paintbrushes like colored pencils, resulting in a creative practice firmly rooted in drawing.
Spike’s sexuality and queer identity are deeply embedded in the work he produces, becoming particularly evident in pieces such as After Piero. This work reimagines the composition of Piero della Francesca’s The Resurrection through a distinctly queer lens. The male figures are depicted nude, repositioned in more relaxed, intimate poses. By reinterpreting one of the artist's biggest influences, he engages with art history by asserting a more personal and contemporary perspective on desire and identity. Spike says that if Halve it, Then Halve it Again is at the rave, then After Piero is at the afters, recovering from the night surrounded by new friends.
A similar tenderness is felt in Icarus’ Wheel, which is built up of thin layers of acrylic, created by scumbling dry veils of color one over another. The work takes inspiration from the composition and subject matter of Herbert Draper’s The Lament for Icarus. A print of this painting hung above the fireplace in Spike’s childhood home. Draper’s work depicts a male figure lying on his back from an overhead perspective, creating a sense of vulnerability and intimacy between the subject and viewer. The original painting of the muscular, semi-nude young man carried latent homoeroticism for Spike as a boy, provoking feelings that made it the first painting he truly spent time with and felt connected to. In Icarus’ Wheel, he lies with a smile, radiating self-contentment. Perhaps this time he has not fallen to his death, but landed with both feet firmly on the ground.
Text by Eva Karkut-Law
Eva Karkut-Law (b. 1998, London, UK) earned a BA in Fine Art and Curating from Manchester School of Art in 2021 and now lives and works in London. Previous exhibitions Karkut-Law has curated include Half Pints, Full Talent at the French House in 2025 and Im/Material at The Chapel in St Margaret’s House in 2024.