Shadyspace
Karen Wells
22
June 2017
22
June
2017
7
July 2017
Shadyspace is a constructed environment that responds to the visceral and liminal features of a built space. These are haptic and optic features, emotional and intellectual feels, and notions of human connectedness. Wells constructs abstract, two and three-dimensional paintings that principally utilise colour, form, depth, and interstitial space. Shadyspace evolves as daylight recedes: folds, textures, tones and finishes alter. We learn to fear the inner shadow, its unknown content and ambiguities and not look to its resources and peripheries. But here lies the potential for the serenity of sleep, dream and the colours of inner life. Imagination and our capabilities of tapping into unconscious thoughts emerge here. At the very least, there may be nothingness, timelessness and allure.
Shadyspace is a constructed environment that responds to the visceral and liminal features of a built space. These are haptic and optic features, emotional and intellectual feels, and notions of human connectedness. Wells constructs abstract, two and three-dimensional paintings that principally utilise colour, form, depth, and interstitial space. Shadyspace evolves as daylight recedes: folds, textures, tones and finishes alter. We learn to fear the inner shadow, its unknown content and ambiguities and not look to its resources and peripheries. But here lies the potential for the serenity of sleep, dream and the colours of inner life. Imagination and our capabilities of tapping into unconscious thoughts emerge here. At the very least, there may be nothingness, timelessness and allure.
Karen Wells
Karen Wells is a visual artist whose preoccupation is with Abstract paintings that respond to interior spaces. Utilising found or remnant objects, images and experiences, her works are an investigation of architecture and her research on the physical, mental and psychological human experience of interior spaces: perception, memory, emotion and spaces for living. Some of her references are Andy Warhol’s Shadow paintings, philosophical writings of Gernot Böhme and Juhani Pallasmaa, and research on visual perception.As well as working with two-dimensional surfaces, Wells' concept of painting includes collages, constructions and installations. She is fascinated by the painting process, and its response to material surfaces, particularly linen, paper and wood. She observes the slippages, the serendipidous, distracted, whimsical elements that emerge. The paintings seem to become a rendering of what is peripheral and outlying in sight and consciousness.Hers are works in which both intention and acknowledging unconciousness occur. Decisions are made about what is kept and what is veiled; there is attention to the intuitive, outlying and understanding what is not quite complete. Depth (or its illusion), layers, surfaces and negative spaces in the works offer puzzles to solve.Wells’ works examine the importance and relevance of abstract painting in the post-medium era, and posit the value of inquisitiveness, noticing and play in contemporary times that often do not allow for the notions of looking closely, musing, philosophising or reverie. Her works celebrate the human lived experience: what is finished, immersive, tasteful and fun, the discarded elements of our ordinary lives, and the present moment before thoughts about ‘what next’ kick in.