Alison Watt’s work first came to public attention in 1987 when she won the National Portrait Gallery’s coveted annual award and in the late 1980s and early 90s, she became well known for her paintings of figures, often female nudes. Watt’s exhibition Fold in 1997 at Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery marked a turning point by introducing fabric alongside these figures. This was followed by Shift in 2000, her solo exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, which saw Watt move away from the figure and display a series of twelve large works depicting swathes of fabric. Her exquisitely painted canvases continue to edge further towards abstraction, yet they still suggest a human presence or absence with a particular concern with the allure of negative space.