Dancing Light is the title of Annalisa Ferraris’ most recent solo exhibition. It speaks to what the artist refers to “a private performance for nobody” – the constant movement of light through space. While we sometimes bear witness to these movements, they are often unobserved. Light moves each day through empty spaces, dancing through windows and upon surfaces, seen by no one in an invisible concert. For the artist, this is a deeply fascinating concept.
Light has been an ever-present subject in Annalisa Ferraris’ work. However, it has often taken the form of shadows, cast in the absence of light, or marking the movement of light through a space. but as my practice evolves. This body of work focuses upon light itself, its flickering chorus line of movements. Light is present. Without the familiar clean-lined, hard-abstraction of shadow, Dancing Light is grittier than Ferraris’ previous work, yet it is also inherently softer. These paintings are less about structure and more about abstraction and the unknowable, unseen patterns of light that are constantly in motion. Empty pools, interiors, and architecture – all stages upon which light ripples and moves.
Annalisa Ferraris (Sydney) graduated from the National Art School in 2011 and attended Central Saint Martins Summer School in London in 2014, since which her career has flourished, featuring regularly in major Australian art prizes, and design publications. Ferraris has been included in the Mosman Prize (finalist 2022, 2017 and 2016), The Paddington Art Prize (2021, 2018), and the Ravenswood Womens’ Art Prize (2021). Ferraris has also received significant editorial coverage from publications including RUSSH Magazine, The Design Files, Harpers Bazaar, Vogue and The Financial Review. Ferraris will make her major art fair debut with James Makin Gallery in 2022 at Sydney Contemporary.
