Fresh from a successful Sydney show and group exhibition in New York, Perth painter Lauren Wilhelm’s exhibition entitled ‘Continuum’ opens this month at the Stuart Street Gallery. Interweaving her interest in classical portraiture with a contemporary approach, Lauren’s paintings juxtapose broad swathes of colour with areas of fine detail. The works, which are a comment on transience, transcend a pastiche of historical iconography to create a meditative contemplation on the nature of power and its inevitable erosion over time.
Despite self effacingly describing herself as ‘notoriously bad at talking about my work’, preferring instead the eloquence of paint, Lauren shared some of her thoughts about her work and upcoming exhibition with OUTinPerth’s Zoe Carter.
‘The exhibition is at the Stuart Street Gallery – on the corner of Fitzgerald and Stuart St – which is a really nice space. It used to be an old panel beating work shop I believe, and it’s just the perfect space for my work. It’s really contemporary, but it’s still a bit rustic, it’s got an old warehouse feel to it. Again it’s right across from my studio, which is Robertson park artists’ studio, right in the park there. I just love it – love the space.
‘There’s a lot of portraiture in the exhibition. I’m fascinated with people’s faces, and I’m fascinated with the idea of people’s histories. I studied for a while in Hungary – I got a scholarship to study over there after I went to Curtin – and I got a real bug with the classical painting. I remember going to the National Portrait gallery in London and walking around and seeing these arrogant ancestral paintings – there they are looking out from these walls with all of their money, prestige and beauty and we’re looking at them hundreds of years after they’ve gone. I’m fascinated by all the history in all of that… we are constantly getting recycled and none of it means anything at the end of it. I love juxtaposing these traditional styles with a bit of a contemporary influence, so my work sometimes looks old, has a bit of a classical feel about it, while others look really starkly contemporary.
‘I also use the image of the horse a lot in my work. It represents lots of things the horse – like power, I guess, as in the traditional portrait on horseback. The horse also represents the natural world – there’s a contrast between something so wild and powerful, but so fragile at the same time and our seeming arrogance in thinking that we can harness that and tame it, control it.
‘I think my body of work changes a lot, even within one exhibition. I travel along a line, and then I vary. I get bored with doing the same things over and over, but essentially they all represent these particular interests that I have. I love that feeling when I just know it’s resolved, and I can just walk away from it.
‘Sometimes if a painting’s not working it can be a bit of a relief. You know you’re not trying to hang on to something, you’re not trying to not mess something up, so you can do whatever you like with it. Sometimes I think really good things come out of it. Sometimes selling them is hard because you’re so close to them and it feels like it’s a part of you – you don’t ever want to be ungrateful, but sometimes it’s surprisingly hard!’
Lauren Wilhem’s Continuum opens at 6pm on November 8 at Stuart Street Gallery and runs until November 30. The gallery is open 11am-5pm Wednesday-Friday, and 2-5pm on Sundays.
