Works that are a delight – Dan Cook

Sunday Tribune

9 Nov 1997

Exhibition: Reclamation

Janet Solomon’s bravura exhibition of paintings in the park Gallery is titledReclamation and is intended as a restoration of the art of painting in the face of the current trend toward installations. Solomon is both technically accomplished and conceptually poetic, workingas she does with “ uncomplicated Buddhist, Christian and Hindu imagery”.

Works such as St Christopher, waiting and Lazarus are impressive invocations of Christian myths. St Christopher, waiting is particularly evocative, depicting an older man wading in a mangrove swamp. One is highly consious of the mortality of the flesh as he awaits the Christ child.Solomon’s handling of form, light, colour and paint is breathtaking – all of which results in captivating painting. Significantly, however, works like Source and Wonder are less satisfying since they lack the intensity of vision which characterisies Feast 1&2, perhaps because Source and Wonder deal with the exotic “otherness” of Buddhism.

Both exhibitions, currently at the NSA Gallery, are profoundly gratifying and well worth a visit. It is refreshing to see local art which is not influenced by the Technical’s art school, and one wonders why more university graduates do not exhibit.