The allusive paintings of Verne Dawson (b.1961) suggest an artist fascinated with storytelling. Seeking to contextualise Dawson’s imagery, John Hutchinson’s survey of the artist’s work to date provides fascinating insight into a complex body of work.

Dawson’s idiosyncratic paintings defy contemporary art-world trends and eschew categorisation, revealing an artist attuned to ideas and values that stimulate an original artistic vision. Informed by a range of interests and influences, from fairy tales to 19th-century American landscape painting, Dawson’s eerie and diverse canvases are intriguing and thought-provoking. Highly individual, Verne Dawson’s visionary body of work will make an important addition to the Contemporary Painters Series and to contemporary-art libraries in general.