Jane Harris: Space Opera

About

Hales Gallery is pleased to announce its upcoming show Space Opera, showing new paintings by British artist Jane Harris. For more than 15 years, Jane Harris has used the ellipse as the recurring formal motif for spatial and optical exploration in her work. Having the potential to be viewed simultaneously as two and three dimensional, the ellipse emerges enigmatically from a tightly controlled surface and the overall effect is seductive, yet restrained. Each painting is imbued with an individual character and elusive presence and with her introduction of metallic pigments, Harris has added more lustrous and reflective qualities to their surfaces. Recently Harris has placed an even stronger emphasis on the spatial and optical qualities in her work. Stimulated by her move to South West France in 2006, she has found renewed pleasure in the relationship of surface to light. This interplay within each painting (and between the viewer and the work) is finely orchestrated by Harris, through variations of the elliptical form, direction and scale of the brush strokes, tonal shifts and the dynamic qualities of the metallic colours. To appreciate fully the rewards of these paintings the viewer must experience them physically, perceiving at first hand the changes that occur through moving around the paintings and from the impact of light on surface.