Stephanie Tabram, Persimmons, 2023. Acrylic on board, framed, 60 x 60 cm. Courtesy: the artist and Bett Gallery, Hobart.

Bett Gallery presents work by artist Stephanie Tabram.

“This highly anticpated exhibition by Stephanie Tabram once again establishes her as one of Australia’s most collectable painters. Almost two years to the day since Stephanie’s last show, a conscious decision was made by both artist and gallery, to provide Stephanie the time and space to create this — her most extensive and ambitious body of work yet.

At a studio in the heart of New Norfolk overlooking the Derwent Valley, canvases, rectangular and circular, lean against white walls, their painted surfaces turned away. A single image is exposed – the one Stephanie Tabram is working on at the moment. One quivering painting at a time is enough, until everything is complete. Only then will the gallery of separate moments be brought together, and their harmonies and whispered conversations released. Over many months, as I have made visits to this space, wonderment has been augmented by a gentle oscillation between the tangibility of the real world, and the mysterious hand of the artist.

A sweeping wash of pigment initiates each proposition, holding breadth and depth in a field of potential. Over hours and days and weeks, the artist works from the horizon up and over to the sky, and down and into the foreground. Methodical and measured, the layers intensify with each pass, bringing forth highlights, and pushing back shadows – reality emerging. In bringing each image into the light, Tabram walks a fine line between two states of being – an active articulation of the outer world, and a quiet internal meditation.” – Excerpt from catalogue essay by Jane Deeth, 2023.

Follow this artist