Maria Walker
I really like the quirkiness of her work. The rawness mixed with careful consideration, or maybe a confusion between the two? I like how they address the viewer; they interact, or react to the wall and some to the space they are in, while holding their ground as paintings. They arent beautiful but I feel like they are somehow about beauty, maybe a hard fought, beat up kind of beauty. It is really interesting how the painting takes on the form while the image takes on a formlessness and at times even seems incidental. This makes for an interesting play between support and image; which one is more consequential here? She gives a whole new meaning to the term "handmade stretcher bar" that she uses to describer her older supports. I imagine them being made with hand tools in some basement by a 10 year old or something, or totally being brought together by accident. If that makes any sense. The backs of the paintings are just as considered as the front in some cases, enforcing their objectness. She comes from Elsworth Kelly in the way that the wall is the canvas before the canvas is. Having trouble pinning her down with anyone else right now.
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