Virginia Coventry

angles, shadows, atmospheres…

27 April - 20 May 2023

Atmospheric conditions…   cloud      fog      mist      smoke      haze      frost      ice

‘I have delighted in the combination of ‘atmospheric’ colours with solid, sharply angular, wood forms; in taking visual dives under the surface, the paint skin, into/onto the patterned grain of solid wood...’

Virginia Coventry

Coventry’s exhibition angles, shadows, atmospheres… contrasts floating, atmospheric colour with the hard edges of machine-cut wood. The burr and whorls of the warm, bright birch below Coventry’s layered paint inflects our perception of its colour– which, in turn, hangs over the wood like a veil. 

As whole forms, the works exist somewhere between relief sculpture, shaped canvas, and painting– defying a singular definition. They reference forms as diverse as collage, 19th century panorama paintings, books lain open, and the contours of the landscape itself. 

Coventry created the works from 2020-2022 during the east coast’s three wettest years on record due to La Niña. The way this affected the daily light in her studio, not just for a few days but for long periods of the year, is embedded into these works. Inherent in that also is the complicated nature of a globally changing climate and how it can affect things as zoomed-in as an artist’s work.