Newcastle University

Macari characterises his work as taking "drawing as a verb - as an action that transforms and continues the world". He is interested in the pictorial languages developed to symbolize our beliefs, and the conventions of how drawings are displayed. Macari's is an "expanded approach to drawing which incorporates performance, installation and video".

Macari's work proceeds by creating intuitive connections or unseen patterns, to illuminate the structure of our beliefs. The ways in which we use visual codes to signify abstract ideas, from medieval heraldry to the mystical geometries of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are among his key concerns. They have resulted in works in which pattern, mathematics and classical references are intertwined with a dry wit and sense of absurdity. Macari asks questions about the hierarchies of the visual and written languages that surround us, and how we understand the world through them.

Macari has previously had solo exhibitions at BALTIC, was selected by the New Museum in New York, for their publication /Younger Than Jesus/ Artist Directory, and has performed at Tate Modern. Commissions include Project Space Leeds, Locus+, Side, the Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool and Leeds Art Gallery.

Image: Ant Macari : 'Ruach HaShem', Installation shot from Zoo, 2009