FIONA RAE – ABSTRACTS
2020-01-13On the occasion of this exhibition, the artist shows a new collection of canvas paintings and more intimate works on paper, her Abstracts, in line with her recent formal research. Her preliminary work in gouache and watercolour, less well known and more rarely exhibited, constitutes a set of ideas from which she creates her paintings and thus allows us to catch sight of their deve- lopment. The artist has chosen to present these two practices in a fixing that takes into account their mutual contributions and correspondences.
Fiona Rae’s work incarnates an abstract-pop universe, filled with references to modern and contemporary painting, to pop culture, and to digital technology. Biomorphic forms float at the paintings’ surface and bring to mind the surrealist visions of artists like Yves Tanguy, side by side with figurative elements borrowed directly from manga, comics, Walt Disney, Dr Seuss—quirky and playful resurgences that recall the work of Philip Guston and Takashi Murakami. The gestural, although organized treatment inscribes it in a form of painterly abstraction, while certain pictorial effects simulate the possibilities offered by Photoshop, revealing a painting practice that is resolutely anchored in her time.
Opposite – Abstract 5, 2019
Exhibition runs through to March 7th, 2020
Galerie Nathalie Obadia
18 rue du Bourg-Tibourg
75004 Paris
