Anya Pesce

I am an Australian born, Sydney-based artist.

My work has evolved from the ideology of abstract painting as a means of expression to create the tangible from the mind.  The works are best described as a fusion between painting and sculpture, as three-dimensional forms which have been individually made by hand. The themes explored in my work include shaped canvases, monochrome, and the Finish Fetish movement in the USA 1960s; a collage of many ideas since I began my practice as an abstract painter 20 years ago.

In my practice, I explore alternative materials to break with conventions associated with painting. Through experimentation using transparencies such as plastic sheeting, my process has led me to the material polymethyl methacrylate (PMM). The shift in my practice from painting to three dimensional forms was primarily due to the inherent limitations with traditional materials used in painting, and while I practice with concepts associated with painting, my work identifies as sculpture. The material PMM (also known as acrylic) provides me with a finish that is inimitable. Historically, my work references the Finish Fetish movement “LA Look” of the 1960s in America which is characterized by pristine surfaces, use of fabrication technique and industrial material.

To create my works, I heat the PMM material in a furnace and then mold it by hand. The forms are free form and not fabricated to pre-existing prototypes. When heated the material has a limited working time while it is pliable, so my method is spontaneous and direct as I create the forms.

My focus is on surface, the external skin of the work, which I manipulate through texture, colour, and light to enhance visual aesthetics. The visceral qualities of the work are an important component of my intention. Tactility and sensory phenomena, via both vision and touch, are the essence of my work. I believe that artists can manipulate the tactile connections related to body and exploit external material qualities to arouse sensation and perception in the viewer. In my work, the material is at once transformed from the mundane to hyper-real.

The work can be wall mounted, suspended from hooks, and positioned on plinths or the floor to adapt to the space they are situated in, which determines the impact they have on the viewer.

2022 Finish Fetish. Solo show .M Contemporary   

2021 Oceania and Auckland Art Fair. FHE Galleries, New Zealand

2020 Anya Pesce COVID-19. Solo exhibition M Contemporary

2021 Orbit.  Mona Foma, Tasmania

2019 30 x30: pret-a-porter.  Abstract Gallery Space, Paris

2019 New Modern RNOP- The Road Paintings.  Fivewalls, Melbourne