Suzanne Holtom

'The Grant Museum of Zoology in Euston is a curious shrine to the departed. Extinct and rare specimens are stuffed, bottled or stripped down to dry bone and shelved in rows like library books. Snake heads and baby moles are preserved in clear liquid, while strange fish stiffened with age, bulge wild-eyed like Tex Avery cartoon characters. This flayed world of pickled corpses is Suzanne Holtom‚ chosen territory, the inspiration for her new oil paintings. What draws Holtom to this mausoleum of crocodile teeth and ammonite shells is not one specific specimen but the museum itself. Her works are created in response to the visual excess of 68,000 objects in one space.'

Jessica Lack 2015