reviews VARDA CAIVANO
Untitled, 2007, oil on canvas, 61 x 46 cm. © the artist.
varda Caivano
Courtesy Victoria Miro Gallery, london
ChIseNhAle GAlleRy, lONDON
2 JuNe – 22 July
The Chisenhale Gallery has such a reputation for championing video a cubist marketplace. Instead these glimpses offer ways in or out of the
and installation that it’s easy to miss that there have been some cracking picture for viewer and artist alike. This is certainly true of the three works
painting exhibitions in this bunker-like space over the years, by artists from 2004 (the rest are from 2005–6), one a disconcerting, quasi-futurist
as diverse as Lisa Milroy and Bernard Frize. The pleasure of looking at portrait in flux, the others depicting views of distant or reflected -scapes
paintings in a room devoid of natural light is that distractions are few, and within frame-like structures, giving the impression of looking out or in.
this opportunity for concentrated viewing certainly suits Varda Caivano’s The recent paintings risk more in their variety of format but still
modest canvases. Caivano operates under a similar level of intensity in unlock the ways in which we discern and unpack the world – how we might
the studio; open to, yet cautious of, influence, she manoeuvres between remember the sheen of a cup, say, rather than its shape. You could spend
various tropes and -isms without alighting on any one. Paul Klee, Wassily hours journeying across the surfaces of these canvases, poring over the
Kandinsky and Frantisek Kupka are acknowledged leads, but they inhabit way oil pastel picks up the tooth of linen while shrugging off a subsequent
the work only as much as, say, Paul Nash or Vanessa Bell, who have had no downpour of turpsy wash; how paint, brittle and sober in one instance,
effect on the development of this London-based Argentinian painter. If suddenly loosens up when introduced to linseed oil; or the extent to which
that sounds like faint praise or a description of soupy indecision, Caivano’s the brush is caused to slide or judder by various weaves and densities of
art possesses a toughness that chastises quick and lazy viewing as much as support. Repeating her wobbly, concentric motifs, Caivano improvises as
it tells of rigorous, time-consuming practice, deflecting easy resolution, be she moves across each picture, altering the tempo of each line, smudge
it figurative or, as is more often witnessed in these 13 canvases, procedural. and stipple to create gently pulsating structures. Rhythms begin to strike
Discernible images are there for those who can’t do without. One up around the gallery. It’s not surprising to learn that the show was hung
painting seems to contain a sinuous table leg; another depicts what might more than once. Altering the pitch, pace and resonance of work in relation
be a stack of plump cushions. But these prove to be as personal as they are to the space and neighbouring paintings is the intimist’s opportunity for
ultimately unhelpful; another of the (all untitled) pictures reminded me of orchestration on a grand scale. The test is whether the work holds up in
skittles; then, on a later circuit of the gallery, of two nuns bobbing across such a setting. Caivano’s does, spectacularly well. Martin Coomer
123 Artreview
NEW Sept_REVIEWS.indd 9 7/8/07 15:45:22
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