louise paramor

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8 august - 7 september 2008

• press release
• ric spencer, exploring the psychology of the found object the west australian, 15 august 2008

This is Louise Paramor’s second exhibition with turner galleries, the first being a residency exhibition back in 2004 AT The Church Gallery.

That exhibition consisted of large scale collages based on the covers of Mills & Boon romantic novels. Louise hand painted the sheets of paper with gloss enamel paints before cutting them up.

These left over paints became the inspiration for the next series of works, where she has dripped and poured paint over the canvas surface. She stated, “this series of work began in a rather oblique way. At the end of 2006 I was presented with two small blank canvases to work on for an ‘end of year’ exhibition. At the time I was a bit bamboozled by the suggestion, but set about to muck around with what was at hand in my studio – at the time, left over gloss enamel paints. As it turned out I really enjoyed experimenting with colour and abstraction in this way, and was inspired by the very substance of paint itself. Since this time, I have become more interested in the principals of modernist abstract painting and the clichés thereof, which, in turn, informs my approach to the genre.”

Whilst the choice of bright colours echo previous works, whether they be the FOREVERYOURS collages or the sculptural assemblages that followed, these new paintings are far more gestural and looser than previous works. Fields of colours pool together, cloying into visceral combinations, against stark white backgrounds. The paint has sometimes crinkled whilst drying, due to its thickness, and in other areas thin translucent paints both reveal and transform the colours beneath.

Louise, formerly from Perth, currently lives and works in Melbourne and her artworks can be found in many important collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of WA, South Melbourne City Council, Curtin University, University of WA, John McBride Collection Sydney, and the Monash University Museum.