NEW YORK, NY – Chelsea’s Agora Gallery will feature the original work of Australian artist Jessica Watson-Thorp in The Saturated Palette. The exhibition opens March 10, 2017 and runs through March 30, 2017 with an opening reception on Thursday, March 16 from 6-8 pm.
Primarily a painter, Jessica Watson-Thorp plays with layering effects, spreading thick acrylic and then carving and stamping it with the end of a brush or stencil before it dries. Once her new topography has hardened, Watson-Thorp introduces yet more color, rendering sections translucent or opaque. Describing her relationship with paint as “a love affair,” Watson-Thorp extols its movement and its ability to convey feeling.
When figures appear in her work, they often take the form of butterflies or dancing women. The former represents rebirth. The latter, she says, “depict female liberation, a release from oppression, and a celebration of equality, joy, and strength.” Originally from Australia, Watson-Thorp has lived in the Middle East for the past thirteen years. It is a region she describes as “deeply beautiful and compelling,” and her work is an attempt to capture both personal experiences and what she calls “the dramatic physical environment” there. Inspired by Matisse, the vibrant colors of time spent in Africa, and the rhythms of life, Watson-Thorp seeks to represent all that is positive in the world. “I am an artist,” she says, “I am a woman, and I am inspired by life!”
Exhibition Dates: March 10, 2017 – March 30, 2017
Reception: Thursday, March 16, 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Gallery Hours: Tues-Sat 11-6
Gallery Location: 530 West 25th St, Chelsea, New York
Event URL: http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Jessica_Watson__Thorp.aspx
Featured Artists:
The Saturated Palette
Olivia Kapoor | Ping Lian Yeak | Vanitira | Jessica Watson-Thorp | Susana Rapallo | Han-Yuan Yu | Maria Fernandez Gold | Irina Goryunova | Chen Jin
About the Exhibition
The Saturated Palette
Agora Gallery is pleased to present The Saturated Palette, a riotous new group exhibition that explores an array of intense visual expressions. All ten artists featured here employ an extreme of some sort, be it tone, shape, texture – or, more frequently, a combination of several. Color is of course the main player, and the exhibition’s large range offers examples of how it is deployed to depict people, places, and ideas. We see it in bright, playful bursts, but also in more unexpected ways. In some works, the standout color is used only sparingly in the frame; in others, it serves to highlight an element of the subject matter, or even to underline the artist’s larger idea about pattern or line. With oil, pastels, and encaustic, several artists show us how a canvas can include only subtle or darker colors that nevertheless completely infuse the image. In this exhibition, techniques are taken to their limit and the curious are rewarded.
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