mounted on a 2 cm sub-frame
When viewing Lara Viana‘s paintings the eye constantly toggles between brushstroke and subject; past and present, flat surface and layered depth. The marks made by adding, rubbing, scraping and wiping paint away are as prominent as the indistinct forms and compositions they suggest. These ambiguous subjects could be based on old paintings or photographs; A set of steps? A group sitting? A couple kissing? Their muted colour palette, often monochromatic browns and blue-greys, also hints at the reproduced image, degraded or become faint. But Viana transforms them into something more personal and intimate and transports them here, now. Then there are the areas of ghostly translucent white, giving the impression of shapes emerging or dissolving, as if one were not looking at Viana’s paintings but right through them.