The Brush Moves This Way, The Brush Moves That

Bartley Nees Gallery
147 Cuba Street, Wellington

The brush moves this way, the brush moves that
new paintings by Judy Millar
2 ­ 26 April 2003
Opening Tuesday 1 April 5.30pm

Bold, energetic and assertive paintings are what Judy Millar has become famous for, and this latest solo exhibition at the Bartley Nees Gallery is no exception.

Judy Millar¹s exhibition The brush moves this way, the brush moves that confirms her status as one of New Zealand¹s most exciting and prominent abstract painters. In 2002 Millar won the Wallace Art Award with her large 3 x 2m painting Big Pink Shimmering One. She is the recipient of the Wallace Arts Trust Link Foundation Fellowship which will enable her to travel to the UK later this year.

Unlike the cool abstractions of many New Zealand artists, Millar¹s current style is loose and gestural. As she explains, "I¹m much more concerned with the sloppiness of the paint and the wetness of the surface than I am about how it¹s looking. I don¹t step back and look. So, it¹s not about composition or any of those old rules, it¹s actually about feeling my way across the surface. The direct relationship of the body is extremely important." (Judy Millar, quoted in Art News, Summer 2002, p.44).

Painting for Millar is fundamentally a process of unpainting: "These paintings are unpainted rather than painted, the paint is put on with a brush and then taken off. They are unworked rather than worked up. While I have been using rags to take the paint off, now I¹m using my hands. It¹s really an attempt to get as close as possible to that surface in a very physical and bodily way so I just use the side of my hand and wipe the paint away." (Judy Millar, floortalk, Bartley Nees Gallery, 2002).

Judy Millar has exhibited at the Bartley Nees Gallery since 1995.

Judy will be at the opening. Please use this opprtunity to talk to her and to join us for a drink.

For more information: please contact Alison Bartley Tel: (04) 8019795

A jpg of a painting from the exhibition is attached: Untitled (blue & green) 2003, 760 x 550 mm, acrylic, oil and wax on aluminium.

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