KINSHIP - a contemporary maritime Guernica

The Kinship Drawing is a work by British artist Pete Codling (Zambia, 1969), who specialises in contemporary figurative drawing and sculpture, disciplines he employs to explore historical narratives, sociopolitical issues and personal accounts. The drawing is executed with charcoal on a canvas sail, to similar dimensions as Guernica, and was made for the Creative Connections exhibition held at Southampton City Gallery in 2023. The show, organised by the National Portrait Gallery London, was co-curated by art students from the Cantell School in Southampton.

The work is a convergence of the influence of Guernica and elements of local history tied to Basque refugee children exiled in the North Stoneham camp during the Spanish Civil War, in addition to present-day themes such as forced displacement, war zones and civilian casualties.   

The drawing was subsequently displayed in Paris, at the Salon Dessin Peinture à l'eau of ART CAPITAL (2024) — a stone’s throw from the place where Picasso originally painted Guernica for the International Exposition of Paris of 1937 — where it won the Prix Taylor Foundation. Further, it was shown at the Musa International Pavilion during the sixtieth edition of the Venice Biennale (2024), which was titled Foreigners Everywhere.