The Illusion of Dichotomy" Art Exhibition by Nadia Vitlin Explores the Intersection of Art and Perception
Exhibition Dates: October 4th to October 10th, 2023 (10:00am to 6:00pm)
Opening Night: October 5th, 2023 (5:00 PM - 8:00 PM)
New Point Art proudly presents [White Heat || Black Ice: The Illusion of Dichotomy], Nadia Vitlin uses various art forms to explore the expression of these false dichotomies. With 16 sculptural paintings on canvas, what appears to be black and white is shifted both in chroma and on the 3-dimensional plane to play with both colour and light. Clay is draped like fabric across the canvas, creating textured ripples where both light and colour pool and stretch. Two fragrances will infuse the exhibition: White Incense and Black lily, which toy with the olfactory senses by presenting scents that cross-pollinate common associations in the brain: warm and pale, cool and dark.
Do dichotomies truly exist? Perhaps what we see as black and white is a plethora of shades that are neither. Is ice always white? Is white always clean? Is black truly the absence of colour? If it the absence of colour, is it also the absence of heat? Dichotomies, or perceived dichotomies, are everywhere -
Good vs bad
Black vs white
Night vs Day
Light vs Dark
Hot vs Cold
Nature vs Technology
Science vs Art
Spirituality vs Practicality
Imagination vs Logic
Rich vs Poor
We are fed information via dichotomies from a very young age, as a way to categorise the world we live in and dictate, or explain, human behaviour. Only as we grow do we realise that things are more complex than simply a world of opposites. Contradictions live alongside each other, often bleeding into each other. When the needle swings to the other side, what happens during the momentum? Is any dichotomy truly real, or are we just living between the extremes of darkest and lightest greys?
Even the yin and yang symbol has a drop of its opposite inside each half. On planet earth, our little corner of the universe, we live and play and exist in all the shades of dark and light. Only deep in outer space can we find a true black – a total lack of light, and a true white – a combination of all visible colours. Even in the starkest of contrasts we can find that perhaps things are not as black and white as they seem.
Nadia Vitlin is an Australian artist based in Sydney, Australia. She has a science background in geospatial information and electromagnetic energy wave spectra. Her art brings together the study of nature through the lens of the scientist with the freeform expression of poured paint. Her style focuses on manipulating the physical characteristics of paint and setting it up to evoke certain aspects of the natural world, before letting the physics and chemistry take over on the canvas in the moment.
This marks her third solo exhibition, following the successes of her previous exhibitions in Sydney and Korea. Nadia's unique approach to art has garnered attention worldwide, showcasing her ability to bridge the gap between structured scientific study and the freeform world of poured paint.