Dionisia Salas, Of Mouth and Mind, 2024. Oil on canvas, 107 x 107cm. Courtesy: the artist and NAP Contemporary, Mildura.

NAP Contemporary presents a solo exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by the rising Ngunnawal / Canberra artist Dionisia Salas.

Born in Darwin in 1982, Salas spent her early life living in Alice Springs, Dubbo, Botswana and Newcastle before arriving in Canberra to study at the ANU School of Art and Design, graduating in 2007. She has since lived and practiced in Canberra, Melbourne and Berlin.

Following Salas’ 2023 showing at the prestigious Spring1883 Art Fair, Night Jar, the artist’s first Victorian gallery solo exhibition, offers collectors an opportunity to experience her visionary exploration at the boundary of abstraction and figuration.

Night Jar is accompanied with a special exhibition essay by Dr. Shaun Lakin, Senior Curator (Photography), National Gallery of Australia.

“I have been painting ‘thought forms’, using the canvas as a space for automatic drawing, where physical, spiritual and less structured ideas act as a starting point. The drawings play out, compete, evolve, churn and invade; form bulges out of shape, weaves with line, colour mashes together to form brown, grey and deep visceral tones that contrast with the pure, tube-squeezed and clean. On the canvas, my automatic drawing develops to hold outline and developed, fleshy, scrubbed, built up muscle that alludes to the physical.” – Dionisia Salas.

Opening Event: Saturday 11 May.

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