Wilma Tabacco - Cycladic
November 21 – December 19, Opening Saturday November 21st, 2-4pm
The Age Review:
'Our Pick of What's Showing in Galleries Around Town
by Dan Rule
December 18, 2015
WILMA TABACCO: CYCLADIC
"Although the title of Melbourne artist Wilma Tabacco's latest body of work may draw connections to a culture of the early Bronze Age, the paintings, reliefs and works on paper in Cycladic might be read as an expanded form of minimalism. But her seemingly flat, interlocked colour planes, striking black motifs and gently glinting reliefs – comprising hundreds of circular, metallic discs or petals affixed to wooden board – shift and transform with time and vantage. The black formal gestures that anchor several of her paintings assume the guise of a kind of abstracted figuration. Others take the form of interlocked geometric shapes, like throngs of silhouettes. The play between abstraction and the evocation of the figure is magnetic. Tabacco's painted surfaces aren't nearly as flat as their first read. With proximity, their patina and the play of the brush become far more complex. Similar qualities belie her metallic works, the components of which reveal themselves to be cut-up paint tubes and wine-bottle seals."
Hatchepsut, 2015
oil on linen
183 x 152.5 cm
oil on linen
183 x 152.5 cm
Excavation #1, 2015
oil on linen 41.5 x 61 cm |
Excavation #2, 2015
oil on linen 41.5 x 61 cm |
Excavation #3, 2015
oil on linen 41.5 x 61 cm |
Excavation #4, 2015
oil on linen 41.5 x 61 cm |
Excavation #5, 2015
oil on linen
41.5 x 61 cm
oil on linen
41.5 x 61 cm
Metamorphoses: Moche Gold, 2015
metal on wood panel
70 x 110 cm
metal on wood panel
70 x 110 cm
Pieces of March: Reconstruction No. 8, 2015
oil on linen
122 x 152.5 cm
oil on linen
122 x 152.5 cm
Remnants of August: Reconstruction No. 2, 2015
oil on linen
122 x 152.5 cm
oil on linen
122 x 152.5 cm
Shards of May: Reconstruction No. 5, 2015
oil on linen
122 x 152.5 cm
oil on linen
122 x 152.5 cm
Sesame, 2015
oil on linen
183 x 152.5 cm
oil on linen
183 x 152.5 cm
Cycladic No. 1, 2014
acrylic on paper
56 x 76 cm
acrylic on paper
56 x 76 cm
Cycladic No. 2, 2014
acrylic on paper
56 x 76 cm
acrylic on paper
56 x 76 cm
Cycladic No. 3, 2014
acrylic on paper
56 x 76 cm
acrylic on paper
56 x 76 cm
Metamorphoses: Celtic Silver, 2015
Metal on wood panel
70 x 110 cm
Metal on wood panel
70 x 110 cm
Swarm, 2015
metal on wood panel
60 x 70 cm
metal on wood panel
60 x 70 cm
detail view
Swarm, 2015
metal on wood panel
60 x 70 cm
Swarm, 2015
metal on wood panel
60 x 70 cm
Ceplis #3, 2105
acrylic on wood panel,
70 x 60 cm
acrylic on wood panel,
70 x 60 cm
Ceplis #2, 2015
acrylic on wood panel
70 x 60 cm
acrylic on wood panel
70 x 60 cm
Ceplis #1, 2015
acrylic on wood panel
60 x 70 cm
acrylic on wood panel
60 x 70 cm
Installation views
Photography: Mark Ashkanasy, David McArthur, and Heidi Vanzet