Anna Gardiner
New Paintings
27 November - 21 December 2001
LONDON Main Gallery

        

        







Anna Gardiner's studio lies on the border of Brooklyn and Queens in New York. Walking through the neighbourhood there is a sense of recognition for those familiar with Anna's work: a broadly diverse community of people who have long populated Anna's imagination and her paintings.

As with all Anna's paintings the predominant theme of the new work is the nature of relationships. This is a rich vein to be working in and the paintings seem to reflect the artist's singular powers of observation. These ordinary people all have stories to tell: the bird-like older woman in a (fake?) fur coat, a man trailing after his wife, a woman and a girl seen from behind in summer clothes walking away. You think you know these people, have even seen them, but after consideration perhaps not. What initially appears straight-forward soon becomes more complex as the paintings' many layers of meaning take hold. Appearances can be deceptive. Anna likes there to be ambiguity and the work allows the viewer to bring their own ideas and history to the narrative, almost including them in the relationship on the canvas.

It is appropriate at this point to remind ourselves that these are not portraits of specific people. They are emotional and physical composites of both friends, family and complete strangers to the artist but universally recognisable as embodiments of human experience.

The strongly coloured abstract backgrounds from earlier works remain, but are more integral to the characters than before. The colours, textures and patterning subtly contribute to the narrative taking place. The figures are quite often in motion, moving across the picture plane or are glimpsed out of the corner of one's eye as if passed by on a street corner. This sense of transience becomes a metaphor for the nature of relationships.

With every exhibition Anna grows in stature and confidence, her explorations yielding a deeper level of meaning. This is a fine body of paintings and one to savour.

An illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.