Gallery 9 is pleased to present the first solo exhibition at the gallery by Perth artist Teelah George. The works in A Soft Gap are based on George's interest in the embodiment of history and memory through physical materials.
George draws upon archival information as a departure point for artmaking. Herwoven and painted surfaces are built in response to oral histories, photographs and fragmented timelines. As her works accrue detail, references to these histories become tenuous and abstract, re ecting what she calls the "the same entropic qualities" found in archives and forms of storytelling.
Much like an archive, George's paintings reveal and conceal. Layers of paint unravel at the edges, giving glimpses of previous incarnations. A top layer of orange, soft yellow or deep blue-black reads as a nal utterance that obfuscates what lies below. The trace of George's meandering brush is like a trailing voice, or a story gathering shape and drifting into oblivion.Coming from a background in textiles before incorporating painting into her practice, George speaks of the importance of "objects and objectness" in her work. Each piece in A Soft Gap functions less as a picture and more as an object - an object that carries the weight and texture of ineffable histories.
Teelah George (b. 1984) lives and works in Perth. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours 1) from Curtin University. Recent exhibitions include Primavera: Young Australian Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2017); the Ramsay Art Prize, Art Gallery of South Australia (2017); Our Studio Selves, Artspace, Sydney (2017) and Epic Narratives, PICA, Perth (2015). In 2015 she was a studio resident at Sydney's Artspace. George is represented in the collections of Artbank, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, University of Western Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Cruthers Collection of Womens Art and the City of Joondalup Collection.
Press release courtesy Gallery 9.
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