Cover image of the review
Isabel Davies, Square variations, 2017–2019, mixed media, various dimensions. © Isabel Davies

Isabel Davies: Recent Geometric Constructions
  • Victoria Perin


18 May 2019
Stephen McLaughlan Gallery 1 May - 18 May 2019

The 90-year-old Melbourne artist Isabel Davies is meticulous; you can tell from her website. On the internet, Davies has self-curated images of her work into a mighty retrospective exhibition. In her ‘about the artist’ section, she features organised binders of archival documents—neat, plastic-sleeved press clippings—as well as candid photographs of her aged hands cutting, tearing and arranging collage elements. Collage and assemblage have been Davies’ mediums since she turned 40. At that point in her life, she had studied painting at the National Gallery School (as what we would now call a mature-aged student), had her first solo exhibition in 1969, before radically ditching her John Brack-inspired painting practice for new seventies-cool Melbourne-style constructions.

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