Examining existence in Metaphorically Speaking
Frestonian Gallery presents their newest exhibition, and their first by Dutch Artist Sanne Maloe Slecht, entitled Metaphorically Speaking. Teetering on the edge of abstract and reality, the exhibition is a bold explosion of colour, texture and patterns and an example of how Slecht’s style has developed into something striking and beautiful, always enhanced by her magpie-like eye for texture and patternation.
Initially studying as a photographer at the Royal Academy of Art in the Hague, Slecht’s practice very early on became somewhat anarchic and based around subverting the medium. Introducing deconstructive elements such as overpainting and collage, she pulled her working method away from the photographic and into a more tactile realm.
Upon the completion of her MA in London, her work had fully emerged into three dimensions, with the lines between sculpture and painting thoroughly blurred. As the distinctions between two and three dimensions receded so too did any sense of unambiguity in the representational versus abstract.
No, you are in the box!, 2020
Obviously identifiable imagery becomes subsumed by the peculiar shifting internal logic allowing each work to float freely in and out of ‘existence’, or between various different existences simultaneously. Slecht has developed, and allowed to evolve, a highly personal and unusual language in painting. Too chaotically self-generating to be ‘surreal’ or allegorical, and yet too rooted in the physical world of ‘things’ to be truly abstract, this uncanny framework is adorned with Slecht’s instinctive love of colour. The finishing touch to each painting is its title, which Slecht plucks from her ever-growing collection of snatched moments of conversation, song lyrics, nonsense poems and other disconnected fragments – one last red herring in each painting that is its own self-contained and tantalisingly unknowable world.
Born in 1987 in the Netherlands, Slecht is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Art, completing her MA in 2019. In her relatively short career, she has produced an impressive body of work rightly recognised by a number of esteemed institutions. Previous exhibitions of her work have been displayed in Gallery Bipolar, Gallerie der HFBK, Hockney Gallery, The Herrick Gallery with her first major solo show displaying in Amsterdam’s Galerie Bart.
With Slecht’s career set to continue to reach heady heights, we can’t wait to delve into the world of this exciting artist. The exhibition is running until the 14th August.
Gallery opening times:
Tuesday to Friday: 11am - 6pm
Saturday: Midday - 4pm