Rebecca Wallis
~ With The Absent Other
This knockout show of new work ~ is Rebecca’s third solo show with the gallery ~ extraordinarily powerful in intensity and nuance.
Rebecca Wallis is an artist who has gained significant international attention for her work. After completing her Masters in Visual Arts at Goldsmiths College in London, she practices between London and Auckland.
Her third solo show with us is one of her most dynamic and exciting yet – paintings on silk that are folded, with both impressions opened up to display a counterpoint mirror image, with a deeply emotional resonance.
At first glance, these works look like they occupy the edges of traditional formal abstraction - but they are far more than that, balancing metaphors of tension and separation with the deep resonance of loss that a parent feels when a child becomes ‘the other’; quite literally finding their own path outside the lines of parental control and influence. This is a current source of personal and family exploration for Rebecca. As she explains,
“The work is about the intensity of our felt experiences between others, specifically between bonding and separation. It’s made to validate the intensity of shared experiences – in my case between mother and daughter – experienced through separation. And to recognise possibilities of openings and expansion lying beyond separation.
It’s expressed through the act of folding a whole sheet of paint in half where the two sides bonds together in areas. The unfolding exposes the restructuring of the whole and is then transferred using transparency to highlight the felt absence.”
The motivation for Rebecca’s work is deeply personal – sometimes confrontingly so. And these beautiful paintings – all recent works from her studio – resonate deeply with contemporary ideas of the ‘feminine’.
Powerful and moving when experienced first-hand, these works are highly popular, and this is a show we’re especially proud to bring to the new space in Ponsonby/Grey Lynn.
~ Downloads for this show
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