The blue and the dim and the dark, 2024

Taking its title from W B Yeat’s famous poem on unrequited love, the abstracted self-portrait represents a dichotomy of loneliness and strength, pulled from a personal experience The deep self-reflection and somberness is captured through the colour palette and faceless, half turned gaze, yet the torso faces straightforward with proud shoulders, a pointed breast facing the observer as if in defiance. Though pained and in turmoil she is neither broken nor made half. There’s an inner strength, a stoicism which she wants the world to notice. As with Gemma’s other abstracted figurative works, they speak to a turning point in contemporary society’s obsession with the female form.

Gemma Galvin is a self-taught artist based in Sydney, Australia. Her work focuses on the abstraction of the natural form while exploring strength, balance and powerful sensuality. An emotionally driven artists, her abstracted landscapes and figurative studies explore deep personal reflection and emotional connection.

Choosing to work with varied painting mediums, and an interplay of textures and hues the hoped for affect are works which create a sense of intrigue and intimacy. Gemma’s work is deeply driven by the human attachment to memory and its externalised renderings.