Created By
Maria Marshall
Acrylic on canvas perfomance painting
Curator
Luke Chapman
What's particularly compelling is how Marshall handles the linear elements. The lines don't simply describe form; they dance around it, creating a nervous energy that activates the entire surface. This approach lends the work a psychological depth, suggesting internal states as much as external appearance. The multiple overlapping contours of the face and torso create a sense of temporal flux, as if we're seeing the figure through time rather than in a single frozen moment. The delicate washes that suffuse the background provide a gentle counterpoint to the more assertive linear elements, creating a spatial ambiguity that keeps the eye moving between figure and ground. This interplay between definitive mark-making and atmospheric subtlety speaks to broader themes of presence and absence, certainty and doubt, that seem to run through Marshall's work as a whole.
With this piece, Marshall shifts into figurative territory, presenting us with a deeply expressive nude study that recalls the gestural power of Egon Schiele while maintaining a distinctly contemporary sensibility. The work is executed in what appears to be ink or watercolor, with fluid lines that seem to search and wander across the surface, building form through repetition and overlap. The figure emerges from a muted, sepia-toned ground through a series of confident, rhythmic strokes that simultaneously define and dissolve the human form. There's a remarkable tension between the anatomical and the abstract here – while the figure is clearly delineated, with recognizable features and poses, it also seems to splinter and multiply, creating a sense of movement or perhaps multiple perspectives captured in a single moment.
Created By
Maria Marshall
180 x 240 cm | 71 x 94 in
2024
