

Layla Rudneva-Mackay, [Untitled}, 2018. Oil on canvas, 100 x 120cm. Courtesy: the artist and Starkwhite Gallery, Auckland.
Although looking at this new work through the lens of pain is almost inevitable, Rudneva-Mackay’s ability to create lush and active painterly surfaces from soft tones and also vibrant colour remains. Some images are direct, clear, and explicit, others geometricised or abstracted, presenting bold form against shallow ground in free, dynamic brushstrokes. While her practice has often presented ambiguous moments or poetic fragments that offer a hint of darkness and mystery, this narrative is now fully developed. Fruit becomes a vehicle for dark thoughts and dark feelings while an abundance of gestural clues exist for those wishing to read meaning into form.
The gallery is open to the public following the lifting of all COVID-19 restrictions in NZ.
This exhibition can also be viewed on the gallery website. View exhibition here.
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