Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Roberta Queiroga
In Between – It’s Still Me
Xhuba Gallery, 5 High St Auckland
Until – 22 February
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Brazilian born Roberta Queiroga’s training as an architect appears to inform her art practice, bringing a nuanced understanding of space, rhythm, and materiality. Her architectural sensibility links gesture, energy, and spatial awareness.
Her works are connected to Eastern artists such as Sengai Gibon the nineteenth Japanese Zen artist known for his simple, and profound ink paintings which employed minimal brushstrokes to convey deep spiritual truths. There are a couple of Queiroga’s small gestural work on paper such as “Today 1” ($480) which are reminiscent of the Japanese artist.
The paintings also connect with the work of Max Gimblett, entwining Eastern spirituality and modernism. Like Gimblett’s work Queiroga’s has a sense of capturing the instant, when emotion is realised and intuition is revealed.
“Tidal Composition – Ripple” ($4800) is a simple gestural work with a single sweeping stroke with small ink splatters, capturing the instance of creation. Like the title of the work several of the paintings are derived from the tides, their motion, their drama, their moments of calm and their intricate patterns of movement.
The two panel “Tidal Composition – Pulse” ($8000) extends the notion of surf and tides with a suggestion of curling breakers, the energy of the waves pulsing along a shoreline.
Some of the works have titles related to another energy, that of fire with some titled ”Brasa” which is Portuguese for embers while others are titled “Charcoal and Fire” and “Glow of Embers”. In “Charcoal and Fire” a small slash of red enlivens the work like a bloody mark.
The predominant colour for these works is a bold orange which provides a sense of energy, heat and light. With “Charcoal and Fire” ($3800) there are also traces of red which adds a sense of danger. With the “Glow of Embers” ($3800) where black encroaches on the orange it is like the colours of a dying fire.
There are some more subtle, gestural works in the show among them “Midnight” ($4800) where the black gestural strokes are laid over a black background giving a sense of the shapes emerging from the velvety darkness of the night.
There is also a display of her” Kaleidoscope Series”, twelve small panels ($150 each, 3 for $300) where black painterly gestures are made on a black background, the various marks seeming like a secret form of calligraphy.
New Zealand Arts Review 