Fishermen

Julia Rogers made "Fishermen" with what looks like a graphite pencil, and it's all about textures, repetitive marks, and the working process. The whole thing is very linear. I see these nets, heavy with fish, and the fishermen in their hats, and it makes me think of the physicality of their labour, hauling up their catch from the sea. Rogers uses this network of hatching and cross-hatching to describe the texture of the net, the weight of the water, the scales of the fish. If you look closely at the bottom left corner, you can see this mass of fish, all squirming together. It reminds me of Kollwitz’s etchings of peasants. There is that same sense of heavy, physical labour, and maybe a shared sense of social concern. The image is built up from so many marks; this attention to the density of the mark feels both descriptive and expressive. It’s the kind of drawing where you can really feel the hand of the artist.