From Andrew Frost…
Aida Tomescu’s paintings are full of movement. Granted, these are abstract paintings with dense oil paint surfaces, paint drizzles and sketchy lines etched straight into the surface, but they are also sumptuous paintings, visually alive with dazzle and drama. Tomescu’s latest show Milky Way continues her investigation of form and colour, using oil paint and collage elements on paper and canvas. Works on paper such as Hofftstadt II are marvelous examples of Tomescu’s approach – an exacting understanding of the form of a picture surface.
Tomescu’s work is highly structured, despite the apparently loose gestural features. The worm-like squiggles, loops and curls of her marks, and the layers of paper and paint beneath, reveal the work of a painter who has that rare talent to know when to leave something when it’s done. Large-scale paintings such as Larkspur reverse the approach of the works on paper, offering up layered slabs of colour – in this case a rich lemon yellow that looks it could be destined for a tart – over a background of unknown detail, with just a few details appearing at the edges.
Milky Way is a measure of Tomescu’s unfaltering precision as a painter, featuring paintings and drawings with a galaxy of incident and detail within their edges.
Until September 6
Liverpool Street Gallery, East Sydney.
Pic: Aida Tomescu, Hofstadt II, 2011. Mixed media on paper, mixed media and collage on paper, 120x82cm. Courtesy of the Artist & Liverpool Street Galleries.
