In Light Touch, Mark Titmarsh splits an interest in painting between two apparently dissonant forms, abstraction and collage. Yet both of these terms that were once meant to challenge the complacency of painting have now become overused and potentially misunderstood. In this show it would seem that it is colour that draws some kind of resolution between them.
The paintings reference abstraction but are not 'abstract' since they are excessively material. Shape and colour on a metallic surface captured in resin resemble a prehistoric specimen preserved in tree sap. Similarly the collages hide themselves in their own light, making it difficult to work out where one image ends and another begins. There is something excessively graphic in the suturing of images in these so called collages, since they are more like books, the cover revealing its contents all too faithfully. Colour brings both rooms together in a visual operation that is not quite an image, something closer to the immediate workings of the body in its mode of sensual intuition. Very lightly colour touches the extravagances of the wall, the aluminium substrate and the paper. Here colour and form do not necessarily describe anything, but remind us of the mystery of light.
Mark Titmarsh (born 1955, Ingham, Australia) is a visual artist working in painting, video and writing. His paintings and filmwork are currently held in public collections across Australia, and in private collections in Europe and the United States. Among other qualifications, Mark has completed a PhD in Painting at University of Technology Sydney, he holds a Masters degree in Visual Arts and has studied at St. Martin's College of Art, London; the University of London; the Pietro Vannucci School of Fine Arts, Italy and the University for Foreigners in Perugia, Italy.
Press release courtesy Gallery 9.
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