photos: Studio, Andalucia,
Spain |
|
ABOUT SARAH MEDWAY
Sarah Medway makes beautiful images full of light and intricate
pattern which question both the nature of appearances and
our perception of what it is that we see. She is drawn to
polarities, to what Kant calls 'the coupling of contradictory
notions'. Her work investigates the specific properties of
paint - thick and thin, translucency and opacity, textured
and smooth –- as she examines what lies behind the substance
of the world, in a painterly process of point and counterpoint,
affirmation and denial, abstraction and suggestion.
As long ago as 1995 I first used Anthony Burgess' evocative definition
of art as 'a static shimmer' in relation to Medway's paintings.
As her work has increased in ambition and authority, it may be
said that not only a static shimmer, but an ecstatic shimmer animates
it. In those phrases are suggested the pulse and counter-pulse
of opposites (stillness and movement) so crucial to her work, and
the sacred fire of creation which can approach a state of rapture.
(Andrew Lambirth 2002 on the occasion of exhibitions at Vertigo
Gallery, London and Milan) |
