Slag Gallery is pleased to present A Self Apart, a series of paintings by Alida Wilkinson. This will be Wilkinson's first solo show with Slag Gallery, NY.
In A Self Apart, Alida Wilkinson presents three series of life size works which imagine the many selves a person inhabits, releases, and protects. These series trace the evolution of Wilkinson’s figurative work, from monochrome and unanchored installations, to layered and desaturated wall-based works, to vivid single layer portraits.
Wilkinson draws from a range of art historical sources; her vertical formats and watery inks stem from an early and enduring interest in Japanese sumi-e scrolls, her stark likenesses and impressionistic strokes evoke John Singer Sargent’s monumental portraits, and elements of installation and layering are inspired by Ann Hamilton’s immersive works.
Wilkinson’s use of liquid ink and water on mylar alternates between sharp, intimate detailing and organic chaos. The unpredictable nature of her chosen medium lends a simmering, volatile energy to each work. Using herself, her girlfriend, and her close friends as subjects, Wilkinson captures a vulnerable aliveness in each figure. Her life size figures elicit a visceral connection with the viewer with their gazes, and her layered works provoke both a desire to see what lies beneath the top layer, and a reluctance to touch the work. Wilkinson is interested in this tension between viewer and painting, especially in the context of women as subject. Her paintings prompt both connection and confrontation; they grant the viewer access to each subject’s hidden selves, at the same time as they give agency to the subjects.
