December 2011

Head Wound

In titling this exhibition Head Wound, Edward Purcell reveals a number of sources and influences. The format of the drawings recalls conventions of Neoclassical portraiture as well as illustration techniques developed in early medical texts. The title itself, deliberately encourages the viewer to think about the relationship between the words wound (an injury) and wound (from the verb to wind). In developing the images he worked from a contoured shape of the human head and played with the idea of wounding and winding bandages with each profile showing a different wound with a bandage wound around the head to cover it.

Purcell studied studio art and art history at Virginia Commonwealth University and completed his M.A. in art history in 2005 at the University of Virginia, focusing on medieval sculpture. His work in a variety of two and three-dimensional media has been exhibited at the Virginia Museum in Richmond as well as in galleries in Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Santa Fe. Currently, he serves on the art history faculty of both the College of Southern Maryland and Northern Virginia Community College. He is a long-time member of the Arts Club of Washington, where he chairs the Marfield Prize Competition, the national award for arts writing.