MARIA FARRAR: Maria Farrar

Ota Fine Arts 7CHOME presents four works by Maria Farrar, in celebration of her participation in the group exhibition ‘Thinking about Caring and Motherhood through Contemporary Art – When? Where? By Whom? Why? How?’ at the Art Tower Mito starting from 18 February 2023.

Farrar paints scenes derived from her everyday life or from fragments of memories. These scenes include women walking a dog or gazing into the window of a bread shop, a garden as seen through a window and make-up scattered over a dressing table. The captured moments are concrete and yet at the same time, they contain a sense of elusiveness and the feeling of a floating and expanding world. In her earlier work, Farrar used bright pigments on a raw linen support. The warm grey tones of the linen complement the pigments' colours, causing them to appear deeper and stronger. Her thick outlines and the sweep of a person's silhouette are reminiscent of East Asian calligraphy with its smudges and dry brush. Farrar is clearly aware of the views and senses which she cultivated while growing up in Japan. Among the many Japanese characteristics of her work are the calligraphic use of brushes, close ups and the unpainted margins. Farrar remarks on this as the idea of coming and going between the East (calligraphy, manga) and the West (raw lines, large oil paintings) in terms of technique, colour, narrative and reality. "Employing old techniques and acquiring new paths" is how she explains her attitude as a painter.