Alicia Dubnyckyj: Two Cities

7th December – 6th January

Recent visits to San Francisco and New York - the two iconic cities on the east and west coast of the United States, are the subject of this exhibition.

We are invited to share the artist’s experience and follow in her footsteps as she revisits old friends, metaphorically speaking. We see a shift from previous paintings, which depict the monumental and iconic, to the portrayal of street life – an honest insight into the prosaic but also magical qualities that define these cities’ unique characters.

Alicia’s successful painting career has taken her to cities across the globe where she has considered notions of homogenisation and urban identity through her work. With a cool detachment and distance, her high-gloss images revealed the generic city – slick and polished but also magnificent and awe inspiring! Alicia would jigsaw together, in an abstract geometric pattern, distant panoramas - the glittering night skyline or striking emblematic buildings of universal appeal.

However, she now invites us to enjoy a closer and more intimate acquaintanceship. Through a shift of perspective and proximity she visually conjures up the sensation of walking on foot; the sights, sounds and smells come to mind as we experience the general theatricality of city life. We may glimpse perhaps the Flat Iron or Chrysler buildings through bustling walkways or Bay Bridge through dense traffic, and are reminded of the magic of turning a street corner to discover the unexpected.

Through this comparative journey of both cities we are made aware of the wide open undulating streets and low skyline of San Francisco in contrast to the claustrophobic and structurally enclosed high-rise environment of New York. Her adroitness of line, control of colour, and ability to capture light through a single mark together presents us with a complex experience of place. These paintings capture the immediacy of the snapshot, and paradoxically leave an indelible mark on the memory and a discernable sense of place.