LISA IVORY: EYES OF THE LANDSCAPE
Nino Mier Gallery is pleased to present Eyes Of The Landscape by British artist Lisa Ivory, the artist’s first presentation with the gallery.
November 8, 2024 – January 21, 2025
In this exhibition Ivory invites us into her fantastical world populated with tumbling, dancing, and jostling mythical creatures. Skeletal bodies, fleshy nudes, and allegorical figures playfully fight within lush landscapes and classical edifices. This shadow world, a liminal space between the heavenly and earthly realms, delves into the deep recesses of the mind where inhabitants appear as ghosts within dreams. Intentional and energetic, Ivory’s luscious use of a dark tonal palette simultaneously references classical romanticism while pointing to ideas of primal sexuality; desire, sex and fear are all prominently at play.
Here, intimacy is heightened by scale as Ivory’s small canvases cocoon these emotionally charged scenes while calling the viewer in for closer inspection, as if peering through a keyhole. Ivory’s practice and the concepts informing it are in close conversation. Indeed, Ivory has likened the movement permeating each narrative with her painting practice: “It doesn’t matter how much I plan it there is always a dance-putting on paint, taking off, putting on, wiping off”.
“My landscapes are commonly occupied by a Wildman, who occasionally interacts with a female human figure. There is a Rake’s Progress of sorts, with a skeletal Death figure interrupting the discourse between these characters. The Beast attempts sympathetic magic by scrawling images into the landscape. These exchanges occur in a shadowland—a liminal space of a half-forgotten place that exists simultaneously as rural, urban and wasteland populated with anomalies, chimeras and spectres.”
“In this new series, I anchor an exploration of mortality by depicting the symbolic figure of Death. This motif, often linked to the memento mori tradition, serves as a reminder that death is an unavoidable part of the human experience, urging viewers to reflect on their own mortality and the transient nature of worldly pleasures”, says Ivory.