Georgia Spain, Night Rides. Oil on canvas, 11.1 x 15.2cm. Courtesy: the artist and {Suite} Gallery, Auckland.

Georgia Spain’s interest lies in where life sits on the border of understanding and unknowing, of abstraction and figuration; the place where one’s inner emotional worlds and the physical world collide.

Her latest body of work I’d rather be here than not continues to explore ideas around spectacle, absurdity, and mark making. Her paintings often depict groups of figures in the midst of action or movement, though remain ambiguous in their narratives. These figures exist in a mysterious painterly world, where they sometimes become one with the landscapes they inhabit; merging together with looming clouds and mountainsides, and speaking to a sense of collective aliveness. Her concurrent depiction of beauty and violence – stirred up by chaotic clusters of bodies – also reflects the artist’s own struggle with the duality of their practice, constantly caught between the coexisting euphoria and agony of making.

The studio continues to be a place for exploration and the show’s title I’d rather be here than not, takes on a double meaning – both a celebration of the many facets of being human and alive in this world, as well as a nod to the artists own studio and practice.

Opening Event: Wednesday 12 April, 5.30 – 7pm.

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