Art thoughts: Samara Adamson-Pinczewski

Spatial Persuasions
22 March - 14 April, 2018
Charles Nodrum Gallery
An exhibition of shaped paintings inspired by Oblique theory and Brutalist architecture.

Neon Crease (from the left) 2018, acrylic, iridescent acrylic,
fluorescent acrylic and Topcoat with UVLS on wood, 111.50 x 156.50 x 17.00 mm.

Irised, 2018, acrylic,
iridescent acrylic, fluorescent acrylic and Topcoat with UVLS on wood, 111.00 x 151.00 x 7.50.

Excerpt from the exhibition essay by Kate Nodrum:

‘The specific inspiration for this series of works was a visit to the Church of St. Bernadette du Banlay, an example of Brutalist architecture built in 1966 and designed by Paul Virilio and Claude Parent. The founding principle of the design was the pair’s theory of the ‘Fonction Oblique’, whereby the convention of building on the horizontal or vertical is literally broken by sending the architectural lines of a building off the diagonal or by blocking them all together. The sense of sudden jarring or disorientation that this produces is exemplified at St Bernadette and translates directly into Samara’s existing practice of devising geometric formations that are themselves Oblique, fractured, and yet resolved. On her visit the artist studied and photographed the interior and exterior of the church throughout the day. These photos were converted into monochrome line drawings, then made into studies in aluminium sheeting; each line, fold and hole in the study referring to a wall, shadow or void in the building. For the final works, made of custom-cut plywood, the artist undertook a painstaking process of trial and error to select a colour and application technique for each plane of the composition that would produce just the right balance of movement and tension, but also harmony.'