TRACES – urban resonances, is a contemporary painting exhibition by Brisbane artist, Sharmila Nezovic. It explores the built urban experience through creative, highly textured abstraction.
It poses ideas like: could there be any redeeming, even sensual experiences, hidden in the slabs, cracks and peeling paint of our urban environments? Nezovic uses what she calls, ‘an ‘industrial palette’. By directly mixing into the paint such materials as road-base crusher dust, builder’s sand, and sawdust, and even adding in fragments of found objects like glass shards or rubber bands, her works bring directly into play the colours, textures and detritus that surround us every-day. The resulting visual commentary on our built environments, challenges us to re-contextualise the familiarity of streetscapes. We are nudged to notice there’s often surprising beauty and wonder to be found at our feet – in cracks and crevices between buildings, or in reflections from plate glass windows. And yet there’s also reminders of the signs of trauma too – acknowledgement of the decay, the discarded, the unwanted. Things we pass by, take for granted and invariably overlook. The pressures of 21st century living are evoked by a play with contrasts. Nezovic brings a fresh perspective towards the grit – conjuring questions around sustainability and the harsh world that we’ve designed to confront our vulnerable, human selves with. This intimate exhibition presents fresh glimpses and references to our everyday surrounds, yet, transforming the hum-drum drabness into occasionally elegant, often provocative, and even sometimes, humorous, statements.

Artist’s Talk: midday, Thurs March 21.
Opening Night: 6:30–9:00 pm, Friday March 22.