Naomi Avsec's subtly twisted visions transport us to a surreal other-world of fantastical beasts, impish mischief-makers, angelic innocents and holy fools: vulnerable, deluded creatures intoxicated by the strangeness of a life utterly out of their control. Wonder and fear blend inextricably as the mad menagerie spin in all directions, dangle unaware on the silken ropes of biology or destiny - or stare out vacantly in awe, confusion or love-struck bliss.
In creating this engaging and apt metaphor for our own condition, Avsec has, over the past decade, forged a distinctive and individual illustrative language. Influences from artists such as Paula Rego and, in particular, Ana Maria Pacheco have permeated her work but she brings too a light-heartedness and careless joie de vivre absent from the darker Freudian or classical themes of these C20th masters.
In recent months, innovative approaches with embroidery and collage have added new dimensions to the composition and texture of her art. A more open painterly journey - less reliant on illustrative planning and more on careful responses to the work as it unfolds - has produced calmer, more abstracted pieces. Born out of the same sense of life's mesmerising richness, they too speak of an artist of genuine imaginative powers. |
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