OPEN/CLOSED

Gallerysmith 
November 2022

Picture
Picture
Metamorphosis​ - Pedder​, 2021, metal, acrylic on wood panel​, ​70 x 110 cm. © Wilma Tabacco
​



















​Vista 1 to 5, 2021,
​Metal, acrylic on wood panel, 50 x 40 cm
Eugenia’s Pleasure 2012
metal leaf and oil on linen
183 x 137 cm

​OPEN/CLOSED
 
What is now? What was then?
 
Dr Sophia Errey’s observations in her 2013 essay that accompanied my exhibition Gilt Edge are equally applicable to OPEN/CLOSED. My processes and imagery have changed but the content and associations she identified then remain much the same now.
 
I have used gold and its synthetic substitutes since 2008 – on paper, on linen, on wood panels.  Such works have always been exhibited in conjunction with their genealogical counterparts: works, predominantly oil paintings, from which they were birthed. That’s how I envisaged it to be then. Now, with a much larger body of gilded and recycled metal works available to choose from, I wanted a selection of them to dialogue in the same space, place and time.
 
A simple premise for a solo exhibition, but also a privilege for an artist to be able to analytically scrutinise past and current works in a public space; away from the comfort of the studio. The associational, or even actual implications of this exhibition’s title are numerous; open to a variety of ideas, closed to facile readings. For me, it is as if I am opening and closing the pages of an oversized personal visual diary.
 
Wilma Tabacco
October 2022