RHYS FULLERTON REVIEWS ILONA SZALAY: QUEEN OF SWORDS
After less than a year, Ilona Szalay is back at the Arusha Gallery with another provocative exhibition.
Her oil-on-glass paintings here in Witness last August were one of my highlights of the summer, and I’m pleased to see her return. But be warned – these exceptional new works are highly personal and often seem intrusive.
The first painting I came across was the confusingly titled ‘Telephone’. I found this piece extraordinary and powerful, but I’m not actually sure about what’s happening in it. I like the boldness and brightness of the reds and pinks, which untidily drip and fade but make an intriguing and disturbing work. I’m sure I’m wrong because the distinctive red seems to tell me otherwise, but what I see in this painting is a man trying to help a mermaid.
Szalay’s work always leaves me with the impression that something else is going on that we’re not seeing. In ‘Wish’, for example, it could be mistaken for a couple embracing – but why is the woman looking up? Is she trying to avoid contact and perhaps looking to the sky to escape? I adore the misleading bright blue, which disappears before it reaches the edges of the frame.
‘Divided’ seems too on the nose for this to be a comical piece and I was looking for subtext, but I couldn’t get past the shocked look on the man’s face as he stares up at his beheaded body.
The most personal part of the exhibition comprises Szalay’s private ‘chronicles’, which are displayed for the first time to the public. These drawings and words are a narrative of her life from 2012, recording her private emotions, her move to Italy with her family and the ensuing breakdown of her marriage. You can’t help but feel like you are intruding in someone else’s private and most personal thoughts.
On display are quick, rough sketches and words, which are sometimes funny, sometimes erotic and often haunting.
Finally, I’ll draw your attention to ‘Volcano’, which is my favourite work on display. I expect there is something beneath the eruption which comes from within Szalay, but from a visual point of view I think this work is remarkable. It is a visual explosion, which seems oddly placed amongst the other works in the exhibition but is refreshing to see. The colours are incredible, and the piece shows her ability to capture even such a well-trodden theme in a unique way.
If Szalay decides she no longer wants to bare her soul, then ‘Volcano’ and the abstract painting ‘The Star’ (below) prove that she can easily paint something else with vibrant and powerful results.
Ilona Szalay: Queen of Swords continues at Arusha Gallery (13a Dundas Street) until 31 May 2016. Admission free.
