JULIA FARRER :: A THROW OF THE DICE

6 Sep-18 Oct 2024

studio photograph, 2024. Credit: photograpy by Douglas Atfield; Julia Farrer, Art Space Gallery

Overview

JULIA FARRER :: A THROW OF THE DICE
New Paintings and Prints
6 September – 18 October 2024

view the catalogue with an essay by Brendan Prendeville online

Art Space Gallery is delighted to announce our first solo exhibition of new paintings by Julia Farrer.

Though pre-eminently a painter Julia Farrer’s practice has, over a long and distinguished career, embraced printmaking and the making of artist’s books, often in collaboration with the late Ian Tyson under the imprint Partworks. After his death in 2021 his son Matthew invited her to show at the Brussel’s Art Fair, Art on Paper, for which she made a series of drawings in Ian’s memory. They were titled Un Coup de Dés (A Throw of the Dice) after the celebrated Mallarmé poem and this series of drawings became the inspiration and corner-stone of all of the paintings that have followed that are now being brought together in this exhibition.

Linked by a common interest in geometric forms they are paintings that take us to the extremities of an utterly rigorous and pared-down statement. They are purged of extraneous detail and relentlessly single minded in the pursuit of geometric self-sufficiency. There is no sign of Farrer searching for herself in the execution and no evidence of strain or struggle. This is highly objective painting; a statement of extreme refinement, formed and articulated with absolute certainty and control.

This becomes clearer when we consider the way they are made. It is a process that begins with a sequence of random, geometric forms tossed together that are then manipulated and refined using a 3D computer modelling program that brings about a metamorphosis of the elements from one of obscurity to one of absolute clarity, order and balance. Once the composition is resolved a final drawing is made and the image transferred to shaped boards cut from high-grade birch ply that are then painted using an airbrush and ruling pen.

As objects they are beautifully crafted and in their finished state they sit proud of the wall, sculpture like, so that space is allowed to penetrate and run through them rather than just around. And the form and space are realized with precise intensity, subtle gradations and harmony of colour, and fastidious tonality overlaid with a network of painted lines. As Farrer comments, ‘on these shaped wooden panels I juggle with the amorphous, ambiguous geometry of space and the architectural constructed geometry of volume with colour being very important and the equivalent of a musical key’.

Julia Farrer (b. 1950) studied at the Slade School of Fine Art (1968-72), has exhibited widely in London, Europe and USA and her work has been included in the ‘78 Hayward Annual. She has been a Harkness Fellow at the University of New Mexico and in New York, and her work is held in public and private collections worldwide including those of the Arts Council, Tate, British Museum and Yale Centre for British Art.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
A 40-page catalogue is available with an essay by Brendan Prendeville viewable online
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11 am – 6 pm during exhibitions