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Indepth Arts News:
"New Paintings by Judy Millar"
2003-04-02 until 2003-04-26
Bartley Nees Project
Wellington, ,
NZ New Zealand (Aotearoa)
Bold, energetic and assertive paintings are what Judy Millar has become
famous for, and this latest solo exhibition at the Bartley Nees Gallery is
no exception. Judy Millar’s exhibition The brush moves this way, the brush moves that
confirms her status as one of New Zealand’s most exciting and prominent
abstract painters. In 2002 Millar won the Wallace Art Award with her large 3
x 2m painting Big Pink Shimmering One. She is the recipient of the Wallace
Arts Trust Link Foundation Fellowship which will enable her to travel to the
UK later this year.
Unlike the cool abstractions of many New Zealand artists, Millar’s current
style is loose and gestural. As she explains, "I’m much more concerned with
the sloppiness of the paint and the wetness of the surface than I am about
how it’s looking. I don’t step back and look. So, it’s not about composition
or any of those old rules, it’s actually about feeling my way across the
surface. The direct relationship of the body is extremely important." (Judy
Millar, quoted in Art News, Summer 2002, p.44).
Painting for Millar is fundamentally a process of unpainting: "These
paintings are unpainted rather than painted, the paint is put on with a
brush and then taken off. They are unworked rather than worked up. While I
have been using rags to take the paint off, now I’m using my hands. It’s
really an attempt to get as close as possible to that surface in a very
physical and bodily way so I just use the side of my hand and wipe the paint
away." (Judy Millar, floortalk, Bartley Nees Gallery, 2002).
Judy Millar has exhibited at the Bartley Nees Gallery since 1995.
IMAGE:
Judy Millar
Periodic Painting # 1
acrylic, oil and wax on gesso on canvas
2400 x 920 mm
2001
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