Rae Fiona: Solo Show

Buchmann Galerie announces the solo show of the artist Fiona Rae (*Hong Kong 1963). Challenging the way in which the figure could be represented, Fiona Rae’s recent endeavors of capturing the bodily presence in a simultaneous state of appearance and disappearance are inspired by creation and erasure, specifically linked to Robert Rauschenberg’s ‘Erased de Kooning Drawing’ (1953).

Multiple other references inform the new paintings by the British artist, ranging from Chinese Ink and wash painting (shui-mo) to cartoons and comic strips, as well as the grand history of abstraction. The new paintings are showing a surprisingly rich palette of subtle hues, sometimes mixed with a bold grey. Some of the works are kept in an elegant black and white. Without losing any of their dynamism, her gestural brushstrokes are controlled yet loose and we see a freedom of expression and a painterly grandeur.

Fiona Rae once said that whilst Mickey Mouse is interesting to her, a mouse is not. Her work has always been about artifice, not about nature, functioning as echo-chambers of cultural quotation and of the solipsism of contemporary commercial culture. The new paintings, whilst having cartoon figures as their starting point, are less obvious in this concern. They still play with numerous cultural references while being likewise very painterly and abstract.

Fiona Rae’s work successfully shows the possibilities of painting today, linking a very state of the art production back to multiple art historical landmarks. The paintings are nonetheless personal and delicate, as if to underline what The Guardian wrote about her in 2013: “Fiona Rae is a heron in the landscape of contemporary British art – solitary, sharply focused and so motionless she appears rooted to the spot”.