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Changing Tides

“We think we're very precise, controlled humans, whereas in reality we're quite messy on the inside—and that's where the beauty comes from.”
— Simone Brewster

Changing Tides marked a transition in Brewster's painting practice, bringing her long-standing exploration of the female form and internal landscapes onto canvas.

Continuing questions first explored through works on paper and three-dimensional works, the paintings consider the tension between the self we present to the world and the emotional, psychological and bodily landscapes that exist beneath the surface. Abstracted female forms emerge through colour, shape and gesture, creating compositions that move between recognition and ambiguity.

The move to canvas also brought a shift in Brewster's approach to making. Rather than beginning with predetermined forms, she allowed the paintings to develop slowly and intuitively, relinquishing control as works were repeatedly built, reconsidered and transformed. Some evolved over the course of almost a year, becoming records of an ongoing negotiation between intention and instinct.

Existing between abstraction and representation, the paintings invite viewers to recognise something of their own interior lives within unfamiliar forms. Changing Tides captures a moment of transformation within Brewster's practice, as painting begins a deeper dialogue with questions of body, identity and perception that have long shaped her three-dimensional work.