The visual language for this exhibition started with a pencil.

‘From Life’ traces the history of the life drawing, starting with paintings observing the life-drawing room at the Royal Academy, before displaying individual works from the RA Collection, including drawings by Jeremy Deller, Lucian Freud, Jenny Saville, Chantal Joffe, Antony Gormley and Gillian Wearing.

Working with Dyvik Kahlen Architects, Kellenberger–White sought to make an exhibition that caught moments in time and captured the atmosphere of a life-drawing studio. Lit with careful deliberation, our graphics were an exercise in being complementary to the exhibits, both in materiality and conception, while taking care not to distract from them.

All our graphics were produced using various pencils, a lump of graphite, charcoal, and chalk, either hand-drawn directly on to the white plaster walls or drawn onto sheets of cartridge paper and pinned up. Our graphics needed to be sensitive to the exhibited works, as drawing – unlike most artistic mediums – appears visually light and quiet, thus running the risk being drowned out had we used a more familiar approach.