The Shape of Colour - Misha Milovanovich

About

Presented as an online and offline exhibition in London, The Shape of Colour unveils new sculptures that expand the artist's form and investigations into colour. Milovanovich's sculptural compositions commenced in 2019 with a fusion of theoretical and art-historical influences across disciplines and an aesthetic blend of disparate styles and techniques.

The artist's series is a progression from her sculptures in wood, which recall her paintings' phantasmagorical forms and curvilinear patterns. These syntheses are then translated into steel, balancing unimaginable postures that belie their material multi-dimensional construction. The artist tends to the steel to varying degrees, shapeshifting and rendering gentle forms in some intense, anthropomorphic manifestation. At times, their contrasting textures- a few monochromatic, while others are radiant and glossy - convey a sense of visual symphony, featuring the movement of soft daub patterns, lyricism and crescendo throughout.

To create these abstract assemblages, Milovanovich combines various permutations of flatforms sculpted first as small maquettes in the studio and then enlarged in steel, assembled and painted in a highly polished manner. Vivid colour is applied to each composition, transforming the steel - more commonly associated with industrial material - into something that appears floating in space as light cascades over the amorphous structures.

For Milovanovich, the sculptures are structural references to nature by integrating shapes found in our natural environment. 'The mathematics of the construction are the bones, while the colour is the soul of the sculpture', observes the artist.

One of the driving concepts behind the artist's new series of work is her consideration of Therianthropy as a state of being, believing that an animal is an essential constituent in their spirituality or life. 'Therianthropy is the recognition and acceptance of the animal within', says Milovanovich, 'It makes us what we are, but more importantly, who we are'. This concept is found in shapeshifter tales rooted in mythology and traces to the historical cave paintings found at Les Trois Frères in France.

Milovanich's influences are diverse: she cites Dada and Surrealism in her direct and improvisational manner, while her sculptures evoke the breathless balance of Alexander Calder, surrealist nature of Joan Miro's forms. So too has her lyrical harmony been informed by Isama Noguchi's work, an inquiry into Frank Stella's abstraction and the uproarious joy of Elizabeth Murray.

The sculptures of 'The Shape of Colour' has an undeniable magnetism, demanding recognition by the viewer and consideration at a more cerebral level. Each piece in the collection blurs the line between figuration and abstraction, the physical and the spiritual. The distinctly anthropomorphic, precarious structures comprise some twenty parts of nebulous, putty-coloured steel. They are at once light-hearted, disconcerting and flame-like in their stark, commanding presence.

The exhibition online presents a window into the artist's sculptures inside Dellasposa Gallery in highly rendered detail from the viewer's home's comfort. Here, the artist plays with our online and offline experience of art - through an inquiry into the limits of what is possible, the artist applies advanced technology indistinguishable from alchemy. A curated selection of sculptures will also be on view in the gallery for visitors to view in person.