Gemma Smith: Rhythm Sequence
- When 15 Mar - 1 Jun 2019
- Where
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Address
CNR OXFORD ST & GREENS RD, PADDINGTON NSW 2021
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Hours
TUES TO SAT, 10AM–5PM
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Phone
+61 2 8936 0888
'Rhythm Sequence' is the first career survey of Australian artist Gemma Smith. The exhibition traces the development of Smith’s practice since 2003 and its experimentation with the language of painting. It celebrates Smith’s reworking of abstract codes and styles, as well as the testing of colour and form, pictorial depth and formal and improvised gestures.
'Rhythm Sequence' features more than 50 works, including a collection of Smith’s early paintings depicting crystalline forms and geometric compositions on chessboards; sculptural ‘boulders’ and ‘adaptables’ where colours are reconfigured and interact; hard edge and gestural works that explore the blocking, translucency, and opacity of paints; and Smith’s most recent works as of March 2019 in which colour is barely perceptible. Rather than reflect a chronology, the exhibition is sequenced to emphasise an enduring interest in the act of painting itself, with the arrangement of small boards and large canvases reflecting the physicality and the intimacy of studio work.
Curator
José Da Silva
Gemma Smith Adaptable 3 2006, Swizzle 2010, Crushing 2017, and Esker 2014. Installation view, 'Gemma Smith: Rhythm Sequence', UNSW Galleries, 2019. Photo: Zan Wimberley
Public Programs
Gemma Smith: In Conversation
3pm Saturday 16 March, UNSW Galleries
Artist Gemma Smith shares more about her work in a conversation with independent writer, curator and broadcaster Julie Ewington. An authority on contemporary Australian art, especially by women, Ewington's interests extend from feminism to cosmopolitanism, installation to jewellery, and museum projects to cultural resistance.
Guided Audio Description Tours
12pm Saturday 23 March; 11am Tuesday 9 April; 12pm Saturday 18 May, UNSW Galleries
Led by UNSW Galleries Public Engagement Officer Miranda Samuels, intimate exhibition tours utilise the technique of audio description as an access tool for people who are blind or have low vision, and as a medium for experimenting with ideas of language, abstraction, and translation. A warm welcome provided to sighted companions and guide dogs.
Panel Discussion: On Women and Abstraction
2pm Saturday 6 April, UNSW Galleries
Gemma Smith invites a range of Australian painters to discuss the influence of female abstractionists on the development of their work and the work of artists overlooked in the lineages of abstract painting. Speakers include Christine Dean, Elizabeth Pulie and ADS Donaldson.
Exhibited at QUT Art Museum, Brisbane from 17 August – 27 October 2019.
Accompanied by the monograph Found Ground 2018, published by Formist.