'The Cold Bark Against My Back', Vicky Smith's solo show launches at OCG on Sunday 6 March 2022

The Olivier Cornet Gallery is delighted to present Vicky Smith's first exhibition with us. Vicky is a member of our AGA group.

We will warmly welcome you to the opening reception for The Cold Bark Against My Back- an exhibition of new work by Vicky Smith on Sunday 6 March 2022 with an Artist's Conversation with the gallerist at 2pm. 

Made over two years, these works are informed by the experience of the artist being a mother while trying to make work, the longing to go to new places outside the home, and life events as well as more collective feminist themes. Through the process of painting, making, sketching ideas, and writing her thoughts, Smith reflects on these themes to understand and make sense of the universe, in particular the position of women. She considers how our lives change in motion, leading us to one final destination. She considers Greek philosopher Marcus Aurelius’s question in Meditations: “What does nature hold dearer or more proper to herself than the invisible existence of change?” 

The starting point for this new body of work is Smith’s fascination with stories of women in the news media concerning attacks, catastrophe, conflict, depression, desperation, domestic acts, loss, love, moving on, murder, resilience, survival and willpower. She is intrigued by how certain mass media stories about women resonate for women as echoes of their own lives. Women’s stories interconnect like the branches of a tree or a woven tapestry or the thread count in a blanket. Smith is drawn to the crisis in each story by how it is unpacked, as if each woman is unfolding clothes from a suitcase after a journey from girlhood to womanhood and beyond. Smith appropriates news photographs depicting these women, meshing them into paint, photo collages, readymade sculptures, annotated sketchbook drawings, and collages. 

Please visit the exhibition's page to read the full statement and more information about the show.