ANYA PESCE

Pesce’s practice references the Fetish Finish artists of the 1960s who worked in and around Los Angeles. The group attempted to break the nexus between the traditions of painting and sculpture by utilising new, often industrial materials to produce bold, minimalist two and three dimensional art with slick, tactile surfaces.

The origins of PMM can also be traced to the mid twentieth century materials revolution. It’s malleability and strength makes it ideal for countless commonplace applications, but elevated to an art form it can be demanding. Pesce produces her pieces in a factory setting, where the flat acrylic sheets are heated to 170 degrees celsius. Working intuitively, she has a limited window of time to manipulate the material, quickly shaping forms to produce refined yet visceral works of art. The seemingly effortless results require honed craftsmanship and a bodily sense of the limitations and attributions of PMM, combined with intellectual rigour and a keen aesthetic sensibility.

While there is clear lineage between her earlier paintings and these works, the limitations of the flat painted surface became a catalyst into the three dimensional space Pesce now occupies. Her choice of medium allows for a deeply haptic interaction, though paradoxically she aims for the physical mark of the artist to be all but eradicated, resulting in flawless and pristine surfaces.

The works are contextually complex, informed in parts by Pesce’s forays into abstract painting and her long involvement with the fashion industry, partnered with a desire to create works that evoke joy and beauty. Also essential to the pieces are the characteristic draping forms. Much like cloth fabric, the folds both reveal and conceal, and while the often highly reflective surfaces are visually striking, it is the less obvious and shadowed under folds that invite a more intimate inspection. These minimalist abstractions allow the viewer full imaginative reign, and while the hand of the artist is deliberately absent from the lush surfaces, each unique piece comes unmistakably from the Pesce stable.

Works in this exhibition are positioned on walls and the floor, becoming an immersive experience that evokes a world of harmony and sensuous form, of delight and surprise. In this it becomes a suspension of the mundane, and a momentary release and rebalance from the frenetic pace beyond the gallery space.

Dr Corinne Brittain