From Painting to Relief: Seven Abstractions

From Painting to Relief presents seven artworks that span the spectrum of gesture and structure in abstract art: Judith Allsopp, Diane Whitehouse, and Marion Nicoll contribute works that range from pure expressionism to centre-spectrum hybrids; Patricia Fulford and Elizabeth Willmott adopt an approach more like constructivism. The antithesis of structure in this grouping is Allsopp’s gesture painting. Confidence and spontaneity are typical of abstract expressionism, but Allsopp’s colour and composition make this work a pleasing and nuanced study. In Whitehouse’s painting, peaceful coexistence melts into synchronicity. Borders are made indiscernible in a room where the outside world has come in, where the stability of a crossbeam is undermined by free and energetic applications of paint. Nicoll orchestrates another balancing act in her woodcut. In Maybe Tomorrow, she exploits the medium’s natural inclination towards bold and abstract design in her use of positive and negative space. Fulford’s Plexiglas sculpture expands an exploration of space into three-dimensions; it reflects her interests in “the figure as architecture, the figure as structural engineering, the figure as abstract design.”1 Lastly, Willmott rooted her practice in scientific theory and close observation of the natural world. Her reliefs represent nature’s structure and creativity. Each of the works in this selection respond to the capacities of space and the pictorial frame with gesture, structure, or something in between. From Painting to Relief encourages viewers to consider the variation and malleability of abstract pictorial languages.

Organized by Jamie Wright
The Deed is for Today: Manifestos, The Structurist, and Abstraction[pdf]
by Hannah Keating

Image Credit: Elizabeth Willmott, Relief  Structure #5, 1963, painted wood

Exhibition Run February 24 - March 24, 2017

Gallery Hours
Mon. to Fri, 10 - 4 pm
Or by appointment

Essay
The Deed is for Today: Manifestos, The Structurist, and Abstraction[pdf]
by Hannah Keating