The latest exhibition in the WA Now series at the Art Gallery of WA, Breathing Pattern showcases new and recent work by Western Australian artist Eveline Kotai, including canvas reconstructions and painting.
Over the past 15 years, Eveline Kotai’s interest in material dissolution and regeneration has culminated in the practice and process of cutting up and reworking her own paintings into new works.
Dunja Rmandić, AGWA Associate Curator of 21st Century Arts, said, “Eveline’s practice is mesmerising—while one can understand the process, seeing the works in front of you opens up another dimension of experience and perception, of presence and being present.”
Eveline’s unique technique of cutting up and reworking paintings into new compositions echoes a world in constant transition. Not only do her methods provide a constant source for new beginnings, but the action of cutting and stitching canvasses have become an important meditative practice that is reflected in her final pieces. Works that may previously have been representational are sequentially dismantled so that the remodelled ‘palette’ becomes the impetus for new directions.
Inherent in the synergies that unfurl are further iterations of nature itself. The complex combinations of tone, colour and surface merge into harmonies that are reminiscent of life’s underlying cycles – sensed but not easily recognised. Eveline’s work offers a space for contemplation that distills her ongoing inquiry into the correlations between art, life and nature.
Eveline Kotai was born in 1950 and lives in Fremantle, Western Australia. She is a member of the Art Collective WA.
WA Now presents Eveline Kotai: Breathing Pattern, on display from August 17 to February 10 with an artist talk on Saturday, 14 September. Free entry. Details here.
