Wendy Stokes: Fragments

Wendy Stokes has lived by the ocean for over five decades and draws from her deep connection to this landscape. Two artworks from her Fragment series are on show now at Luminance Gallery.

Fragment 3 & Fragment 4 are part of a larger series, presented as residues of lived encounter. They document the artist’s sensations as she moves through a coastal landscape.

Playing with notions of space, Stokes fuses ambiguous islands of floating colour punctuated by lyrical mark-making. She pulls from an eclectic blend of atmospheric geographies, memories and experiences focusing on the beauty found in details, remnants and glimpses; excavating form, scraping out the mark to reveal what lies underneath; a quiet beauty reflecting an interplay play between light, fragility and strength.

The landscape, Stokes says, becomes about sensory experiences lived through the body rather than the singular framed view.

Wendy Stokes’ work is exhibited widely in major public institutions including the Glasshouse Gallery Port Macquarie and respected commercial galleries. Her work is held in significant public and private collections including the National Gallery of Australia and AGNSW. Her practice is recognised for its signature mark-making and spatial qualities engaging with contemporary landscape painting.