Beyond Form

Now bringing radiant bursts of colour and rhythmic movement to the gallery, Beyond Form is a dynamic group show uniting three key voices in West Australian contemporary painting: Jordy Hewitt, Kate Dolan and Sara Winfield. Joining forces for a painterly celebration of abstraction’s expansive emotional possibilities, this talented trio’s new work unfolds across two rooms at Michael Reid Northern Beaches throughout August.

Pushing past the seen world and eschewing the figurative in favour of feeling, each artist contributes a distinct visual language to our Beyond Form. Whether through gossamer hues, gestural brushstrokes, intuitive markings or raw surfaces, their works treat abstraction as a means of navigating lived experience.

Jordy Hewitt’s work traces interior states and embodied experience, drawing on “life meaning, symbolism and energy” to arrive at a distilled emotional essence. Her paintings are intuitive and searching: “Everything I observe and experience is processed and regurgitated in the works and shows me something about where I’m at.”

Kate Dolan approaches her canvases instinctively, often starting with pastel gestures and letting the piece to evolve via movement and mood. Her colour fields and graphic linework offer snapshots of emotional time, shaped by experience and fleeting encounters with colour in the world around her. “Whatever is happening in my life is reflected in my paintings. I try not to plan too much – I just let them happen.”

Sara Winfield brings a raw physicality to Beyond Form, layering oil stick, sand, sawdust and paper to create textured surfaces that speak to the tension and beauty of female experience. Her work is grounded in personal narrative – a navigation of motherhood, identity and the competing demands of care and freedom. Her work offers “a reflection of my inner world… the tension between chaos and calm.”

To discuss works from Beyond Form, please email northernbeaches@michaelreid.com.au