 Perennial Winter, 2005 acrylic & latex on canvas, 70 x 60 in / 117.8 x 152.5 cm Hannah Maybank Looking at Hannah Maybank's paintings we are given access to a world of stillness and subtlety, and of tension and drama. While calm and action may at first seem in opposition to each other, their coexistence within the work suggest that these paintings hold a certain life force of their own. Maybank's artworks present the fine balance of elements that give life to painting. Her paintings may at first glance appear monochromatic and minimal, but on closer inspection reveal themselves as textured, layered, multi-toned. Their complexity and contradiction is masked by their beauty and calm. Layering paint and latex one on top of the other, Maybank creates paintings that contain imprints and projections, her paintings adopt sculptural form. By layering and removing paint, by creating tears and rips Maybank dismantles the surface of each work, shifting attention from a flat surface to an area with visibly different depths and recessions. Traces and remnants of hidden layers and patterns become evident as the surface cracks and dissolves. A fracture in the paint forces fragments to curl away from the canvas revealing previously unseen and unknowable aspects of the painting. Using visual motifs taken from nature, trees, mountains and clouds, these paintings are reminiscent of fossils. They present traces of the past overwritten by new inscriptions. But where some may regard fossils as suspending time, works such as "Mounting Interference", suggest that time is a continuum of past and present. The traces and imprints of past living matter, once hidden are now revealed. The sedimentary layers that once masked the past are eroded at different rates to unveil coherence between all things. A large black canvas apparently depicting nothing is revealed to hold hidden depths through its fissures, contrasting light and shade. In her black paintings, the distinction between mimesis and representation is most clear. Although using natural and organic motifs Maybank's artworks are not mimetic landscape paintings, but rather she has produced images that are metaphorical representations of the abstracted notion of nothingness. She is conscious that it is the empty space that is sometimes the most interesting. If we consider the universe as an organic whole, each part is interdependent and the relationships between each part are as important as the individual elements themselves. It is the interplay between the elements that allows for a coherent whole. And so it is in Maybank's paintings. The rips and tears of the paint as it takes on a sculptural presence may be dramatic, but it is the area of counterpoise, the empty space that allows the drama to unfold. In this conception of nothingness, the still space is analogous to a space of possibility. This is Hannah Maybank's second solo exhibition at Gimpel Fils. She graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1999, and had her first museum exhibition at the New Art Gallery Walsall in February this year. Exhibition: 7 September - 15 October 2005 Gallery hours: Mon-Fri 10 am - 5.30 pm, Sat 11 am - 4 pm Gimpel Fils 30 Davies Street GB-London, W1K 4NB Telephone +44 20 7493 2488 Fax +44 20 7629 5732 Email info@gimpelfils.com www.gimpelfils.com |
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