Karen Wells investigates painting and the abstract. She is impelled by her research on the neurology of perception, health and environments. As indicators of the constructed, hand- made and what is soon overlooked, initially, found and off-cut materials are partnered and combined unchanged to form collages. Then paintings, constructions and environments are made with a painter’s perspective. They arrive in response to interior spaces by chance, experimentation and deliberate efforts to be obtuse and break from planful, conscious efforts.
Room ... for the breathless considers the visceral, sensory, emotional and liminal features of the known and well-trodden space of the gallery. Wells’ paintings utilise colour, texture, edges and shadows, with a focus on negative space. This exhibition offers recognition of a contemporary life crowded with expectations that we feel compelled to address immediately. It also celebrates its respite: our capacity to breathe more gently, deeply and slowly. If we give them time and space, we may realise that we can tap into unconscious thoughts and feelings to experience an unexplored inner life that otherwise remains hidden. What emerges is a thoughtful and playful take on what it means to exist in a place where you can live and grow and what it means to live a life that you really want.
