Andrea Bolima’s paintings assert their physical presence but perhaps more importantly, they allow dreamy associations to be made in the paint. Bolima’s paintings sit in an ambiguous zone between abstraction and representation and as such one can find themselves in flux between ‘here’ and ‘there’, in focus and out of focus. Her paintings are led not so much by representation as sensation.
Inspired from memory and the natural world, Bolima paints ambiguous organic forms, areas of paint may resemble cloud currents in a sky scape or leaves and trees in a whimsical garden. Her forms are never explicit. Colour and active gesture spark the feeling of such places without letting go of a painterly materialism and abstract aesthetic. Through colour and form they remind us of unspecific places and moments that are simultaneously personal, private and universal.
For Bolima, colour precedes composition in process, fields of colour are applied before surface textured marks are applied. She will apply and mix colour directly on the canvas and in doing so, creates a site of change from which she can then respond to intuitively. A practice that is characterised by varying degrees of control and lack of control, spontaneity, play and intuition.
–Benjamin Abdale-Weir, 2021
Opening Hours
- Tuesday-Friday, 10am-6pm
- Saturday, 10am-4pm
Address
- 455 Mount Eden Road
- Mount Eden
- Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
Andrea Bolima’s paintings assert their physical presence but perhaps more importantly, they allow dreamy associations to be made in the paint. Bolima’s paintings sit in an ambiguous zone between abstraction and representation and as such one can find themselves in flux between ‘here’ and ‘there’, in focus and out of focus. Her paintings are led not so much by representation as sensation.
Inspired from memory and the natural world, Bolima paints ambiguous organic forms, areas of paint may resemble cloud currents in a sky scape or leaves and trees in a whimsical garden. Her forms are never explicit. Colour and active gesture spark the feeling of such places without letting go of a painterly materialism and abstract aesthetic. Through colour and form they remind us of unspecific places and moments that are simultaneously personal, private and universal.
For Bolima, colour precedes composition in process, fields of colour are applied before surface textured marks are applied. She will apply and mix colour directly on the canvas and in doing so, creates a site of change from which she can then respond to intuitively. A practice that is characterised by varying degrees of control and lack of control, spontaneity, play and intuition.
–Benjamin Abdale-Weir, 2021
