Cover of CORRESPONDENCE, an artist’s book by Colin McAllister and Paige Pearson, featuring a black-and-white drawing of an interior room.
Black-and-white comic panel introducing SNUBLiC and Colin McAllister.

Colin McAllister is an artist whose work develops through drawing, research and conversation.

Drawing has been central to his practice for many years, allowing him to investigate different subjects and construct detailed visual worlds. During his MA Fine Art at Norwich University of the Arts, collaboration became an increasingly important part of this process.

His recent project CORRESPONDENCE, made with poet Paige Pearson, brings together drawing, poetry, recorded conversation and publication. The project has broadened his practice into a way of working in which conversation, research, drawing and editing can each shape what comes next.

Kinetic drawing made while listening to Paige Pearson read her poetry, with white gestural marks across a black field.
Horror Vacui, a dense black-and-white drawing with a central figure surrounded by intricately detailed circular forms.
Drawing from CORRESPONDENCE, an artist’s book made in collaboration with poet Paige Pearson.
A spread from CORRESPONDENCE combining a detailed black-and-white drawing with a typographic found-poetry composition.
Spread from CORRESPONDENCE, bringing together drawing, interpretation and found poetry developed through collaboration with poet Paige Pearson.
A spread from CORRESPONDENCE combining the drawing On the Worksite with a bold black-and-white editorial-style composition.
Spread from CORRESPONDENCE, bringing together drawing, interpretation and found poetry developed through recorded conversation.
A spread from CORRESPONDENCE layering recorded conversation text with kinetic black-and-white drawing.
Spread from CORRESPONDENCE, combining extracts from recorded conversations with kinetic drawings made while listening to Paige Pearson read her poetry.
Abiogenesis II, a black-and-white drawing of a motorway crash scene with an ambulance and damaged vehicles.
Drawing from CORRESPONDENCE, an artist’s book made in collaboration with poet Paige Pearson.
On the Worksite, a charcoal and pencil drawing of a surreal worksite enclosed by barriers and signs.
Drawing from CORRESPONDENCE, an artist’s book made in collaboration with poet Paige Pearson.
Kinetic drawing with layered white marks and splashes across a black field.

SNUBLiC

Astronauts, a densely detailed black-and-white SNUBLiC drawing filled with figures, symbols and hand-drawn text.
A$tronauts, 2021
Indian ink on paper. 16 × 23 in.The future of space exploration is elitist. Eldritch beta male billionaires make a show of their rockets while the rest of us burn and/or sink.
Undesignated Proximate, a dense square black-and-white SNUBLiC drawing of an imagined landscape built from intricate marks, structures and text.
Undesignated Proximate, 2020
Indian ink on paper. 25 × 25 in.Commissioned as album artwork for DgoHn’s Undesignated Proximate. Inspired by Robert Crumb’s cover for Cheap Thrills, the drawing crowds together possible global catastrophe scenarios, including nuclear war, pandemic, climate disasters, financial collapse, cyberattacks and artificial intelligence.
NHS, a vertically oriented black-and-white SNUBLiC drawing depicting a densely layered figure and institutional landscape.
NHS, 2019
Indian ink and pen on paper. 23 × 16 in.A drawing marking over 70 years of Britain’s National Health Service, depicting what came before — charitable hospitals and asylums serving only the most “deserving” poor — and what might lie ahead: a crisis in the provision of care for the elderly and private American interests encroaching on a once comprehensive free service.
Official Nationalism, a vertically oriented black-and-white SNUBLiC drawing combining architecture, symbols and hand-drawn text.
Official Nationalism, 2024
Indian ink on paper. 16 × 23 in.Made during a project investigating the rise of 21st-century autocracies and inspired by Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities. The drawing is a pastiche of 19th-century Britannia and a commentary on how this fictionalised notion of Britain persists in the public imagination. Smaller details nod to less acknowledged elements of Britain’s past, including the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Redundant Scenes of Colchester

Redundant Scenes of Colchester: Ancient Barracks, a black-and-white composite drawing of the former military barracks and surrounding landscape in Colchester.
Redundant Scenes of Colchester: Backstreets, a black-and-white composite drawing bringing together alleys, buildings, bridges and overlooked urban spaces in Colchester.
Redundant Scenes of Colchester: Waiting Room, 2015, a panoramic black-and-white drawing of a bus station waiting room and surrounding buildings in Colchester.