THALIA ROBERTSON

Symmetry and Integration

July 31st – August 22nd, 2026

As a painter, the modernist approach to the medium is at times irresistible because of its tangibility. This is my third exhibition following a trajectory of materiality and geometric abstraction, and to my surprise when I thought I had pushed a particular lyrical form to its limit there was more in the bank. I keep expecting to run out of ideas, but the opposite occurred. This time in the guise of a mirror effect that began with a few works included in the exhibition ‘The Third Element’ 2025 at Five Walls gallery extended into and expanded in this current body of work. 

I utilise the Rorschach style form as a way of looking for signs from the impersonal other through the uncanny, trying to resolve polarisation and integrate dissonant elements, here represented by colour, into an experience of wholeness, as symmetrical pattern. The veneer of a logography raises questions about the human propensity for order, the demand for forms which make sense. 

Producing this work with basic tools and materials: hammer and nails, wood and glue, brushes, paint, medium and relying on painterly conventions to convey the illusion of depth and space is apparent, but do these subjective decisions make a difference to the final product? To be clear, I could have employed AI, used a colour APP, and bought pre-made grounds. The time spent pondering pictorial elements could have been shortened by employing current technologies.

Human agency is the issue. Is the work somehow more humanly ‘authentic’, to use a modernist term, because it is hand-made and the process slow, or a representation of a redundant old school craft ethos? Does this only bring relief to an otherwise disjunct and fractured assemblage of colours, lines, and signs? Does it even matter?

Thalia Robertson, 2026