An anatomy of movement. Whether alone or in group compositions, Anastasia Bay’s (°1988, Paris) schematic figures capture the eye. It is not the “disembodied eye” of detached contemplation, but the mind’s eye that joins the cadence of the dancing bodies, the restless divers, boxers and walkers that populate her paintings. While most characters are closely framed by the canvas, some sneakily cross the line and slip onto the other side. The eye moves along as figures start multiplying. In addition to intersecting bodies, Anastasia Bay also plays with the figure-ground relationship. Figure and ground intertwine with a somewhat disconcerting affinity.

Anastasia Bay draws on a wide range of sources and extracts some of the ‘types’ that run through the history of representation. So the first passage is one of transliteration, in which a set of visual codes is shifted to her own pictorial language. Thin coats of paint and black pastel give flesh and volume to the bodies, while thicker strokes define the substance of the more opaque backgrounds.

Represented by Whitehouse Gallery