Gemma Smith

Shadow Paintings
《陰影畫作》
2025

Presented by Sullivan+Strumpf
由Sullivan+Strumpf呈獻

Shadow Paintings
2025
3 panels, each 280 x 380 cm
Oil on canvas

Gemma Smith’s Shadow Paintings delve into the intuitive and unpredictable nature of abstraction, presenting an installation that engages viewers with shifting perspectives of color and form. Smith has developed a process-based approach to abstract painting over more than two decades. Her art meditates on the relationship between intentionality and inevitability, on the interaction between the will of the painter and the obstinacy of the painting. She embraces a process where compositions unfold organically, free from the constraints of imagined outcomes. Each of the suspended Shadow Paintings is an aggregation, a cluster of compositions representing one and many possibilities. Created over several months, with countless layers of gestures and erasures, decisions and indecisions, they contain within them shadows of other potentialities, of paths not taken and of unforeseen new directions. As she navigates these processes, unexpected elements emerge, resulting in what she describes as ‘serendipitous peculiarities’ that define the paintings’ character. In several bodies of work, Smith has foregrounded the physicality of her medium, creating paintings that come off the wall to engage with their site and to allow multiple orientations and perspectives. Immersive in scale, the Shadow Paintings are predicated on a mobile, active spectator and reward sustained viewing. Her Shadow Paintings exemplify her commitment to embracing the unknown, transforming intuition into a vivid exploration of materiality and perception.

《陰影畫作》
2025
3幅板，每件280 x 380 厘米
布面油畫

Gemma Smith的《陰影畫作》深入探討抽象藝術的直覺性與不可預測性，這個藝術裝置讓觀眾以變幻角度與色彩和形式互動。二十多年來，Smith開展了一種以過程為本的抽象繪畫方式。她的藝術沉思意圖與必然之間的關係，以及畫家的意志如何應對繪畫的毫不退讓。她的創作先以構圖自然展開，擺脫預設想像的束縛。每幅懸掛的《陰影畫作》都是代表單個或多個可能性的構圖。創作歷時數月，經過無數的下筆與擦除、決定與猶豫，包含了不同可能性的陰影、未走的路和未知的方向。在過程中，意想不到的元素不斷湧現，形成她所描述的「偶然特質」，界定了畫作的風格。作品的懸掛方式突出了媒介的物理性質，讓觀眾能從多角度與繪畫互動。《陰影畫作》的規模使人恍若親歷其境，不禁隨作品移動和持續探索。作品體現了她對接納未知的堅定，以及將直覺轉化為物質性與感知的生動探索。

Born 1978 in Sydney
Lives and works in Sydney

1978年出生於悉尼
現於悉尼生活和工作