‘Like his earlier studies of the image of Renaissance Popes, Marcus Coates's recent paintings are the means of pitting violence against desire. Painted on metal, using photographic techniques, they continue his dia¬logue with the past by means of face-to-face confrontation. Skull-capped figures of indeterminate sexuality face the viewer against a backdrop of darkness and impending violence. Could this battle between fragility and strength be an allegory of the artist's tussle with history?’

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‘Like his earlier studies of the image of Renaissance Popes, Marcus Coates's recent paintings are the means of pitting violence against desire. Painted on metal, using photographic techniques, they continue his dia¬logue with the past by means of face-to-face confrontation. Skull-capped figures of indeterminate sexuality face the viewer against a backdrop of darkness and impending violence. Could this battle between fragility and strength be an allegory of the artist's tussle with history?’