Abstract Artists Never Sleep - SOL Gallery
Left to right: Susan Tait, Alex Bridge, Traecey Bremner
If anything, right now feels like a necessary moment for abstraction. It’s certainly the art I turn to time and again when I feel like I need something, anything to get lost in. We are grappling with a ruptured world- social media that goes from AI cat videos, to the destruction of Gaza, to the end stage capitalism of Labubus. None of it feels real or tangible or sensical. Abstraction has always emerged when the world ceased to be as knowable as it once was. Currently at SOL Gallery is Abstract Artists Never Sleep. Featuring 14 artists from the Hawthorn Artist Society, the group touts itself as an “untutored abstract art group.” Any exhibition blurb for an abstract show invariably contains some amalgamation of the words expressive, gesture, and dynamic - this one is no different. The best abstractions are the ones that draw you in and keep you looking, making you feel like if you just got a little bit closer, you’ll finally find exactly what you’ve been looking for. I connected deeply with some of the artists in a way I didn’t necessarily expect for a sunny afternoon in Fitzroy.
Walking into the first exhibition space, I was met by the grounded, emotional, mixed media works of Susan Tait. They felt inescapably linked to the earth, grounding me into a moment of chaos and deep melancholy. Her largest work, The Winds Are No Longer Whispering is the calm after devastation, a world slowly coming back into view after being torn asunder. Up close, the textural intricacy offered by the layering of fabric adds to the near narrative quality of the four works she has on display. Next to Tait is Alex Bridge, who in contrast is bright and free, almost chaotic in their brushstrokes. Bridge is unmoored in a way that feels unburdened, obfuscating the canvas rather than painting it, concealing a world beneath blue.
Abstraction is not something I have often encountered on a small scale. Devyani Sadalkar’s gouache and acrylic works changed this for me. I wanted to get closer and closer to the framed works until they fully encompassed me in their illuminated worlds. I felt myself looking for landscapes in the frames in the same way I was trying to decode Traecey Bremner’s cardboard works as signs. Bright and angular, the materiality of the cardboard is essential to the work, further abstracting the geometric nature of Bremner’s painting.
In the second room, painted entirely in blue, the exhibition continues. In this truly astonishingly cerulean room, two works by Irene Henning- Beyond and Time on Hold- held the world in softer focus. The creamy brushstrokes of the former layer light into what would otherwise be a harsh, grey world. Time on Hold feels electrified by the blue and yellow bisecting the pinks. Next to the hazy world of Henning is the bright audacity of Penny Darling. Her bright stripes ask you unflinchingly for your attention- and I, for one, am all ears (or am I all eyes?)
After seeing the show I had questions- namely what does untutored mean in this context (as a number of the artists make mention of their academic or education in the arts) and what is abstraction in this context? Ken Wight, featured in the show, was kind enough to take my call on behalf of Creative Space Hawthorn and answer my first question. The group is composed of peers without hierarchy. According to Wight, it is “an opportunity for people to come to a studio and share their work surrounded by people with similar interests.” This opportunity for connection and for community feels central to many of the art practices on display, rather than truly be bound by the definition of an artistic movement.
The answer to what is abstract art in this context is a bit more nebulous. Far be it for me to define anyone else’s practice, but a few of the artists were pushing the boundaries of what abstract encompasses, in a way that did a disservice to the show. A tenant of art making is experimentation, and confining yourself to the bounds of a movement is dangerous territory when you don’t just toe the line so much as put a whole foot over it. The term ‘abstract’ gets used so broadly that it has become detached from abstraction.
Abstract Never Sleep is on at SOL Gallery until August 10th. It features the work of Alex Bridge, Amanda Lugg, Christine Sender, Devyani Sadalkar, Irene Henning, Kathy Best, Ken Wight, Lynne Kells, Nathan Moshinsky, Paula Reade, Penny Darling, Ria Tims, Susan Tait and Traecey Bremner.