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Palce – A solo exhibition of paintings

A solo exhibition of studio–based research practice, this research continues Bodman’s investigation through painting of the absence, displacement or exclusion of the feminine in the landscape. In a subversion of traditional approaches to painting, Bodman uses historical and contemporary images of women, such as those drawn from Édouard Manet paintings and magazine advertising featuring iconic figures such as Twiggy, inserting them into composite landscapes and then rendering them almost undetectable in their new contexts. The paintings and related photo-collages, mainly use a low-key, restricted palette, reflecting their monochromatic starting points.

The series of ten paintings was exhibited in the solo exhibition ‘ Virginia Bodman Paintings’ at BayArt, Cardiff (12/9/2009-17/10/2009). BayArt is a publicly funded gallery, supported by Arts Council Wales and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation; "The gallery promotes the best of Welsh and international contemporary art, concentrating primarily on painting.." (http://www.bayart.org.uk/) The exhibition was reviewed in The Western Mail by Darryl Corner (2/10/2009), “Bodman steers a course between figurative and abstract but it’s not the kind of abstraction where the painting process itself creates the composition, it’s more controlled than that. And whilst her paint is always free flowing and gestural it never lapses into the well-worn macho clichés of action painting” (available at: http://darrylcorner.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/virginia-bodman-at-bay-art-bute-street-cardiff-bay/)