Somehow, more than 100 years after someone first painted a canvas a single colour and thought ‘yeah, that’ll do’, monochrome painting still manages to have a power. It can shock, it can disappoint and sometimes, when you’re lucky, it can open up the possibilities of painting all over again.
Brazilian artist Fernanda Gomes goes for the third option. The main room in this show of pure white works is filled with white squares and rectangles painted on cheap wooden slabs. Some are flat to the wall, others at angles. One is just stretched white mesh over a frame, another has canvas peeling away from the wood beneath. The best work isn’t even a painting, it’s a freakin’ optical illusion! It’s just an empty bloody frame!
What this all does is imply painting. She sees how far she can pull materials away while still retaining the idea of a work on canvas. She forces you to ask if this is a painting, or a metaphor for painting? Or, maybe, is it just nothing?
These two rooms are contemplative spaces of modernist minimal calm. Emptiness that is somehow full. Totally, monochromatically, lovely.
@eddyfrankel
