Sophie Gralton, The Farmer’s Daughter, 2022. Oil on canvas, 122 x 122cm. Courtesy: the artist and Anthea Polson Art, Gold Coast. 

Sydney-based Sophie Gralton’s artwork animates a shift in consciousness to a more intuitive, natural realm that is characterisesd by childhood. Fleeting memories are revisited and given tangible form on canvases alive with tactile surfaces. Largely self-referential but with universal relevance, the images of a lone child embody the recollections, desires and feelings of a time when the everyday world was interlaced with fantasy and imaginative possibilities. Although these works are based on the poses of actual children, they are not conventional portraits. Gralton explains that the cropping of eyes from the figures and the posterior stances are not a means of ensuring anonymity. Rather than the traditional reliance on the gaze to convey the sitter’s essence, Gralton steers the viewer into a different reading of the subject – one where nuance is captured in the posture and background vitality.

Opening: Saturday March 26 4-6pm.

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