ART CITIES: Brussels-Fiona Rae

Known for their iconoclastic approach to subject matter and formal concerns, Fiona Rae’s paintings incarnate an abstract-pop universe, filled with references to modern and contemporary painting, pop culture, and digital technology. When the border between dream and reality becomes blurred and our senses play tricks on us, our minds start to invent evanescent figures whose forms no longer resemble those of the earthly world.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Galerie Nathalie Obadia Archive

Fiona Rae in her solo exhibition in Brussels presents paintings and works on paper from 2015–2021. The selection of the works showcases the evolution of her work over the past few years, an overview that attests to her pictorial virtuosity and ability to conjure up vividly expressive and enigmatic images. The exhibition begins on the first floor of the Galerie Nathalie Obadia with paintings from the “Greyscale”, “Figure” and “Pastel” series; the arrangement of the works reveals the variations in chromatic shifts through a dramatic sequence from light to dark. Rae’s brush marks create elusive and ethereal fairy-tale figures and cartoon characters, blending into and out of darker or lighter grounds, evoking some pictorial effects reminiscent of Photoshop, whilst remaining decidedly abstract. These fleeting figures reflect Fiona Rae’s improvisatory investigation of the evocative and imaginative possibilities inherent in abstraction. On the second floor of the gallery, paintings from the “Abstract” series and Rae’s most recent “Word” series are presented, alongside a selection of works on paper. In the Abstract paintings, Rae abandons intentional references to the figurative, stating that she has “no intention of portraying the human figure, nor of implying a landscape, let alone a still life.” The brush marks are intended to represent only themselves. However, the impossibility of a “pure” and non-objective abstraction is revealed as the painterly forms inevitably evoke references and the suggestion of an imaginary field of activity. The two most recent paintings, “And nothing is but what is not” (2021) and “Yes I’m alone, but I’m alone and free” (2021), are from the current “Word” series, which enacts the titles of the paintings over the surface of the canvas. The brush marks and shapes form letters and sentences with differing degrees of legibility and clarity, merging the languages of art with those of literature and popular culture.

Born in Hong Kong in 1963, Fiona Rae initially studied at Croydon College of Art in London before entering Goldsmiths College in 1984. This is where she first came into contact with Damien Hirst, Gary Hume and Sarah Lucas, with whom, among others, she became part of the Young British Artists (YBAs) group, the embodiment of the resurgence of the British art scene in the 1980s and 1990s. For over 30 years, Fiona Rae has been developing an oeuvre with a rich and complex vocabulary, one that both pays homage to the history of art, for example, the Pop resonance of certain motifs and the gestures specific to Abstract Expressionism, while at the same time producing a distinct and innovative visual language anchored in the contemporary. In 2000 Rae’s paintings began to reference a world keyed to the computer screen, echoing in painterly analogues many of the new visual conventions familiar to a post-Photoshop generation. Fonts, signs and symbols drawn from contemporary design and typography appeared, whilst more familiar abstract marks and spontaneous gestures worried the autonomy, legibility and function of these graphic shapes, debating a new synthesis of painterly languages. In 2004, her lexicon further broadened to include small figures or cartoons whose status was left intriguingly ambiguous. They served to point up the metaphysical and artificial dimensions of abstract painting, whilst also providing an empathetic point of identification for the viewer that invoked a more personal reading. Her recent titles often purport to be exclamations or statements, but like her paintings, they elude definitive explanation and can appear simultaneously dark and charming, anxious and insouciant.

Photo: Fiona Rae, And nothing is but what is not, 2021, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 152,4 x 127 cm (60 x 50 in), © Fiona Rae, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Nathalie Obadia

Info: Galerie Nathalie Obadia, 8 rue Charles Decoster, Brussels, Belgium, Duration: 19/1-18/3/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.nathalieobadia.com/