The richly textured, expressive and gestural works of Philippa Blair summon the zeitgeist of Abstract Expressionists.  These paintings do not have a fixed point of view thus allowing us to read the work any way we like, side to side or top to bottom, as we attempt to discern one surface layer from the next.  It is beneath this layering of paint and aggressive brush strokes that a narrative of urbanity reveals itself.  Like Blair’s work, the richly textured and grafittied walls of Los Angeles are sites of performance whose narrative is always unfolding.

Please join us for the opening reception of this exceptional solo show on Saturday, October 17th, 2009, 6 – 10 pm.

Lawrence Asher Gallery is located at 5820 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, across the street from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and adjacent to the Craft and Folk Art Museum. For more information, please call 323.935.9100 or visit www.lawrenceasher.com

The Artists

Expatriate New Zealand artist Philippa Blair creates vibrant abstract paintings that fuse influences from her New Zealand heritage with the various cities in which she has lived and worked.

Blair’s celebrated career originated in New Zealand at Canterbury’s Ilam School of Art where her characteristic expressive force was encouraged by Rudi Gopas, Ilam’s influential tutor. Gopas’ preference for emotion over formal theory fostered expressive liberty in his students’ art. Blair’s paintings are unencumbered by formality, and a fresh air of freedom resonates throughout her oeuvre.

Movement and the materiality of paint are distinct features of Blair’s work.  The spatial dynamic of her canvasses reveals sudden arcs and pivots that recall the painter’s bodily movements. Her paintings therefore have a kinaesthetic quality; they are a record of the convergence where painting meets sensory performance.

Beginning with drawings, maps, collage and decollage, Blair’s ideas evolve over a number of weeks.  It is after this intense preliminary work that she commits paint to the blank canvas in a spontaneous flurry of memory and movement. This approach necessitates knowledge of numerous sensory impulses and memory as well as a geographic consciousness.[1]

Like the chief protagonists of Abstract Expressionism, Blair paints from above her canvas, thus defying a singular direction and denying a specific interpretation. Her painterly process is characterised by physicality and spontaneity of gestural force. Blair’s palette has no bounds; contrasting and complementary colours are applied directly from the tube or dropped, drizzled or splattered across the primed canvas.[2] In recent works negative (white) space has appeared, ironically heightening the presence of colour and the tactility of paint. Blair manipulates the movement of paint across the surface by rotating her canvas and spilling, pouring, slicing and carving her oils to build and excavate the final image.

There are a myriad of hybrid influences that contribute to Blair’s paintings; music, film, urban environments and the forces of nature are amongst her chief inspiration. Blair’s paintings convey the energy and performance of dance, as well as L.A.’s seismic environment, Hollywood, architectural surroundings and the vast Pacific Ocean.

~ Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland, NZ

Conversation with the Artist.

² Conversation with the Artist.