Ruth Thomas-Edmond
Smells like pink 12 September - 6 October, 2018 12 September 2018 - 6 October 2018 Joyous contradictions lie at the heart of Ruth Thomas-Edmond's new exhibition, Smells like pink. Here we have art wanting to take us for a walk in some imaginary urban park where brutalist architecture meets unrestrainedly fecund nature. This is not the purity of mid-20th century high art abstraction but the creation of form as a way of being in the world which encompasses all the sensory contradictoriness of that experience.
Solid forms in two and three-dimensions are layered and carefully built up brush stoke by brushstroke and cardboard square upon square. Paint in the sculptures gluing the pieces, oozing, glooping, dripping, wanting to be licked, and the structures themselves spawning abundant new growth, multifarious offspring. Paint on the paper (Thomas-Edmond's preferred smooth ground for paint) applied with her signature dabbing brushstrokes, carefully contained and built up in layers that conceal and reveal. But, like the three-dimensional forms, these forms also wander - here free-form across the roll of paper that the artist has hung uncut - in a gesture that invites the viewer to linger and select the fruit that must be cut. Careful and casual, sensory and dry, everyday and ethereal, olfactory colour, Thomas-Edmond's third solo exhibition in the gallery offers rich and lingering contradictions. Wellington based, Thomas-Edmond has a Master of Fine Arts from the Elam School of Fine Arts. Recent public exhibitions include Solo 2014 at the Dowse Art and How to Fall in 2013 and The Obstinate Object in 2012 at City Gallery Wellington. |
Luminous moves
2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 1000 x 1000 mm Luminous moves 2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 1000 x 1000 mm Forget a terrible year
2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 1000 x 1000 mm Forget a terrible year 2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 1000 x 1000 mm Shaded room
2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 1100 x 800 mm Shaded room 2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 1100 x 800 mm Listen, float, hold hands
2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 1100 x 800 mm Listen, float, hold hands 2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 1100 x 800 mm Of pain and doubts - kindness will follow
2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 1200 x 1200 mm Of pain and doubts - kindness will follow 2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 1200 x 1200 mm Blowing out of my arms
2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 700 x 650 mm Blowing out of my arms 2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 700 x 650 mm Drift away instead
2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 1000 x 900 mm Drift away instead 2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 1000 x 900 mm Something to see
2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 1400 x 1300 mm Something to see 2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 1400 x 1300 mm Detours in your mind
2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 1400 x 1400 mm Detours in your mind 2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond acrylic on paper 1400 x 1400 mm Something's coming
2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond Recycled cardboard and plastic 680 x 360 x 450 mm Something's coming 2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond Recycled cardboard and plastic 680 x 360 x 450 mm Laugh at the moon
2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond Recycled cardboard and plastic 800 x 670 x 480 mm Laugh at the moon 2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond Recycled cardboard and plastic 800 x 670 x 480 mm Sky is purple
2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond Recycled cardboard and plastic 830 x 380 x 480 mm Sky is purple 2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond Recycled cardboard and plastic 830 x 380 x 480 mm Bloom 1
2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond Recycled cardboard and plastic 240 x 160 x 110 mm Bloom 1 2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond Recycled cardboard and plastic 240 x 160 x 110 mm Bloom 2
2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond Recycled cardboard and plastic 240 x 230 x 210 mm Bloom 2 2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond Recycled cardboard and plastic 240 x 230 x 210 mm Anomaly 1
2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond Recycled cardboard and plastic 110 x 160 x 90 mm Anomaly 1 2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond Recycled cardboard and plastic 110 x 160 x 90 mm Anomaly 2
2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond Recycled cardboard and plastic 180 x 150 x 180 mm Anomaly 2 2018 Ruth Thomas-Edmond Recycled cardboard and plastic 180 x 150 x 180 mm |