Works from Sam Winston commissioned for the Victoria and Albert Museum.

It’s really impossible to appreciate the work of London-based Sam Winston by looking at images online; they are too subtle and monochromatic to translate to the screen, and even though they incorporate text, they are hard to describe in print. So it’s important to make the trip to Alejandra von Hartz gallery to physically view “Sam Winston: Drawing On Memory.”

Just off a residency at Miami-based Fountainhead and only hours away from a plane flight back to England, Winston talked about what role memory plays in four of the works in the exhibit. Made from a carbon-copy process, Winston transcribed conversations with four people who had particularly special memories to impart. The first is with someone named Tam, who served years in prison. Another is with a monk who spent time also isolated, in a cave, but whose memories are far less dark. He conversed with someone with Alzheimer’s, so the text is sporadic and curt. And finally he detailed the memories of a band member about his endless musical tours across the globe.

Winston with his work.

Running through the narratives are lines and marks, which can appear like waves, and when partitioned, like shorelines. Memory flows, and ebbs. The use of carbon to make these pieces is intriguing, as carbon-dating is one of the best ways that humans can measure time and history. Winston has subtitled these works “Four Interviews With the Past.”

The three works on the back wall were commissioned for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, for an exhibit that closed in September where various artists were asked to work with a novel that also is based around memory — and the erasure of it. These drawings are computer generated, with thousands of symbols from the Periodic Table, our documentation of the earth’s chemical elements (which, surprise, includes carbon), making up the imagery that resemble mandala-like forms.

To understand why, to delve more deeply into the fascinating background to this, you will simply have to visit the exhibit. Once again, these “memories” on paper prove that art is best appreciated, and most loved, up close and personal.

“Sam Winston: Drawing On Memory” runs through April 5 at Alejandra von Hartz Gallery, 2630 N.W. 2nd Ave., Miami; www.alejandravonhartz.net.