Abstract art requires a different way of seeing

Wilani van Wyk Smit with her works in the latest exhibit, which are the feature for the show's promotion. PICTURES: KATE BAKER

YAVA Gallery has opened it’s latest exhibition, presenting 13 Yarra Valley Artists working in 2D and 3D to explore themes around abstract art with paint, photography, clay and glass.

In the time of Coronavirus, lives have become fragmented, interrupted and abstracted – to see clearly the way forward has become obtuse.

Instead we are forced to turn inwards, distill and abstract what is important, what is meaningful, what is the bare essence of our existence.

“Abstract art is art that does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality but instead use shapes, colours, forms and gestural marks to achieve its effect (ABSTRACT) art can or should be like music, in that just as music is patterns of sound, art’s effects should be created by pure patterns of form, colour and line,” quoted by Tate Gallery.

Viewers unfamiliar with abstract art can often find it confronting and even jarring, seeking to make sense or find the meaning in the work can be confusing.

Howeve, if the viewer interacts with the painting in a different way, allowing the colours and forms to infuse our senses, we can travel through understanding on a different level.

As the viewer engages with the colours and forms emotions arise; attraction, repulsion, serenity, anger, joy – however the reaction transpires it informs meaning.

Abstract art requires a different way of seeing and indeed feeling and being.

Artists in the show included Deanne Eccles, Jenny Davis, Jerry Osadczuk, Jo Carroll, John Christie, Laura Windmill, Lee Herath, Lynne McDowell, Michelle Payne, Robyn Henchel, Susanne Richards, Tania Chanter, Wilani van Wyk Smit.

The exhibit will run until Sunday 26 June.