During the 10th edition of West Bund Art & Design, Galerie Thomas Schulte is delighted to be showing a solo presentation by the artist with recent paintings and drawings.
Marina Adams' loose composing of colour and line opens up richly evocative constellations that are both alive with energetic fluctuations and pared down spaces of quiet reflection. Rather than a concrete form, what is shared among the works is an appearance of slow growth, or unfurling, conveyed by criss-crossing lines, repeated verticals and stacked shapes—reminiscent of links in a chain, accordion folds, rising columns, or even ancient symbols. Although vertical in orientation and movement, there is a horizontal tension that tugs at them, as though opening them up. A central, linear structure arranges electric colour in loose geometries that attain new expressivity with each iteration. The lines do not so much separate colour planes as tie them together into a whole that is completely at ease with its idiosyncrasies, irregularities, and nuances.
Alongside the canvases, a series of small crayon drawings—studies of sorts—take on a character of their own. The linear structure found in the paintings achieves greater angularity here. Lines vibrate intensely, wavering like strummed guitar strings. Colour is more sparingly applied in most, but vibrant nonetheless, echoing the striking colorations of Adams' paintings. In both, a sense of fluidity is enhanced by moments of translucency, overlap, drips and slippage—a wateriness that corresponds to the wavy lines moving vertically across the surface, at times jagged and at times soft. Oscillations in shade and intensity consequently open color spaces that are neither flat nor impenetrable.We experience Adams' work, its rhythms, as an ebb and flow—like bodies gently and continuously expanding and contracting with breath. Resonances are carried through slow transformations, as the fluid, gestural forms take root and branch out. What we encounter is familiar, if loosely defined: at the edge of something, as though between waking and dreaming—on the tip of the tongue.
Date
9–12 November 2023
Location
West Bund Art Center
2555 Longteng Ave, Xuhui District,
Shanghai, China