Discover Lydia Gifford’s Quietly Powerful Paintings
One of my personal favourite shows of this year was Lydia Gifford’s solo at Alma Pearl in east London. Her scale, her ambition, her rich use of materials. Lydia’s work demands to be seen in person to truly get a sense of her dynamic textures and subtle colour variations.
When I walked into the gallery on a rainy London afternoon, I was immediately drawn to the way she had hung her paintings as if they were textile pieces. They seemed delicate, with chunks of paint smeared into what looked like netting. There were layers, materials I couldn’t name, and marks with mysterious origins. It’s the stuff that excites any painter who’s waded through the battlefield of making an abstract painting.
More recently, Kezia and I caught a smaller piece by Lydia in a group show at L21 in Palma, Mallorca. The painting was rugged and powerful in a quiet sort of way. I was curious to see her work on different scales but in the same visual language that had excited me in London. I swiftly dropped her a DM on Instagram, and she was up for telling me more about her extraordinary works.
Hey Lydia. The first thing I took away from your Alma Pearl show was the rich variety of textures, which makes the pieces more fun to see in person. What can you say about your love of texture?
Texture and touch is my route to activate meaning and is always the starting point for me. Texture brings thoughts and ideas forward into the real physical space of the body so that I can relate or respond with my body, with a physical intelligence or physical awareness. Texture is the route to my intimate thoughts, ideas, connections that aren’t assigned to language. It activates and stimulates intuitive physical responses, mark-making and application.
Is there a deeper significance with the textures and colours?
Texture and colour are very linked for me and textile seems to have a very significant presence in my life. My childhood memories are often linked to particular textiles and cloth - clothing, or my home environment, daily rituals and my agricultural upbringing. My memory is textured. It feels exciting that a piece of mine might operate for a viewer on a very physical level and be something that you have to see in person to really get a sense of. I really value the real experience of an artwork. It's an offering left in space with the hope of communicating to another person. That’s important to me, especially when we see so much artwork on screens.
I noted the textile elements, with some sort of netting. What are you using?
The netting you’re referring to is a cotton scrim traditionally used in printing. I like it because the weave, the warp and weft is very loose and visible, like a mesh. I use it in a way where layers of mark-making are revealed, marks underneath that I can respond to or excavate down through to make more present. The cotton scrim takes on dye very well, it becomes a very physical layer in itself that visibly holds back marks underneath. Marks come from within the support. I soak the cotton scrim and work with it wet.
I have to ask, how do you transport something so delicate? It must be tricky to move or roll!
Usually I build layers up on plywood so actually they are quite sturdy. I’ve developed a kind of rigid cardboard pizza box system which I float and attach the pieces into so edges are not rubbed and damaged. They just take a bit of sensitive handling but hopefully there’s a sort of understanding of trust I enter into with whoever I hand them over to.
You previously had a show called 'Frictions' at L21 in Palma. Was that in reference to how your textures react to the gallery's wonderfully rugged walls?
Yes the ruggedness of the walls of the L21 space were definitely part of it, but I think Frictions as an idea relates very much to the process of painting and the psychological process of working through ideas and emotional material, translating this into paint, textile and mark-making. The experience of being human is abrasive and often full of emotional conflict. Building up and layering is sedimentary, this is so related to geology and natural processes in the landscape. Frictional erosion, rubbing away or wearing down. Ideas around frictional processes in the natural world, often over millennia embody a lot of the ideas I have about the process of painting and how it aligns with the emotional and psychological realm.
In all your work the colours feel so perfectly balanced, with little dabs and pops drawing the eye in. How do you find that balance? Is it all intuitive?
I’m energised by what feels unnatural in pairings of colour found in nature. The psychedelic in real juxtapositions that feel unreal. Nature’s surprises that jolt you into reality. I live in a remote and natural landscape that has constant displays of colour that seem absurdly unreal, from light play and seascape interactions, clouds and aurora, to lichen and fungus. I build layers or excavate down through layers to rediscover colours. I can’t really analyse the process of finding balance because it is so intuitive.
How do you describe your work to people?
I describe my work as an investigation into the sculptural nuances of painting, while abstract it is related to landscape and the experience of being submerged in nature whether expansive or microscopic. My work emerges intuitively through mark-making and responding to an unfolding journey of discovery. I’m looking for something that feels frightening and nurturing at the same time. I’m exploring paint’s ability to convey emotion and carry atmosphere.
Lastly, any upcoming shows?
I’m having a conversation about some exhibitions for 2025 and I will be taking part in L'art Dans Les Chapelles for 2025/26 in the city of Pontivy in Brittany, France, curated by @ericsuchere. The 16 chapel spaces are very potent and textural, it’s going to be interesting making and seeing my work operate in this kind of space. I’m excited!
Follow Lydia on Instagram: @lydia___gifford
Things on Our Radar This Week
Urs Fischer’s ‘Scratch & Sniff’ show at Sadie Coles
Tracey Emin says male artists are less of a force after 40
Tate’s mini doc on Alvaro Barrington
An entertaining article in Plaster about the dizzying experience that is Frieze Art Fair
A BTS video of Rashid Johnson in his studio
Thanks for reading, see you next time!
Oliver & Kezia xx
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