Filipa Tojal,Crossing the River on the Right, 2022,pigment and acrylic medium on canvas,112 x 112cm. Courtesy: the artist and OLSEN Annexe.

Together with OLSEN Annexe, Filipa Tojal (b. 1993) presents Above The Treetops, an Australian first for the artist. Born in Porto, Portugal, Tojal has developed an internationally celebrated painting practice, having enjoyed success in the United States, East Asia and her native Europe. Holding both a BA (Faculty of Fine Arts of Porto, Portugal) and a Master’s degree (Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan) in her beloved medium, Tojal makes work that is as rigorous as it is beautiful.

Above The Treetops brings together new two-dimensional works on paper, canvas, board and linen. For the first time, the body of work has been made exclusively in Australia, where Tojal has been residing for almost 10 months. “The immense scale of the trees in this country was quite stirring—I found myself imagining the view from above the treetops often”, she notes. Tojal has long been interested in the relationship between nature and art and sets out to explore its potency and poetry. The artist employs raw pigments, rather than paints, in her work, celebrating their transparency, bite and open-endedness.

Opening Event: Saturday 30 July, 2 – 4pm