EVERYDAY EPHEMERA by Sarah Kelk, Presented by Modern Times
EVERYDAY EPHEMERA sees Melbourne-based painter Sarah Kelk retreat inwards, with her new exhibition of work on display at Modern Times in Fitzroy that captures elements of the shared experience of the world’s contraction during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sarah’s abstract work is subtly structured while simultaneously being colourful and expressive. Blocks and shapes with varying degrees of solidity dominate her paintings, yet themselves succumb to underlying patterns and stories that reference nature, architecture, and familiar scenes. These qualities are very much on display in her new work, which has become concurrently more structured and more relaxed, hard edges contrasting with a fluid, free-flowing energy.
Where her previous work was tighter and more discrete, EVERYDAY EPHEMERA breaks these barriers down, allowing the blocks of colour to seemingly float around the space, melting both across the canvas and back into the underlying layers of paint. This gives the work a calming quality, reinforced by a soothing palette of deep blues, greys, pinks, greens, and mustard.
The new collection is also deeply personal for Sarah as, like many, her world shifted dramatically because of the pandemic: “I had grand ideas earlier in 2020 on what this show was going to be about, but with lockdowns in place due to COVID-19, my focus very much moved inwards. I was seeking simplicity – and reaching out to the comforts and connections of what surrounded me.”
As life remains home-bound, this introspective turn towards calming and comforting compositions speaks to much-needed relief among the frenetic chaos of working from home. Amy Malin, director of Modern Times, reflects that Sarah’s new work has “a dreamy quality, like gazing through a window, eyes half closed while the mind gently wanders. The work is calming but resonant with the energy of everyday life.”
The exhibition is open from 29th October to 12th November 2020, accessible both online and in Modern Times’s Fitzroy Gallery. A catalogue of work is available online, pre-sales open 10am, 22nd October.
These qualities are very much on display in her new work, which has become concurrently more structured and more relaxed, hard edges contrasting with a fluid, free-flowing energy.
