Joe le Taxi

Taking its title from the 1987 song of the same name, Nicola Gunnarsson presents a collection of paintings that speak a logic of the early minimalists. Constellations of thickly painted squares are placed delicately across glittered, mesh, lace and cotton surfaces in reference to an interest in vintage clothing whilst conveying the feeling of floating in space, an abstract interpretation of the song ‘Joe Le taxi’ by Vanessa Paradis.

Elsewhere gemstones have been scattered across stretched fabrics to remind us of party dresses glimmering away on the dance floors of the 80s or positioned according to their placement on the plastic card they arrived on. One might read these gestures as sitting somewhere between the broad vocabulary of abstraction or the systematic repe- titions of minimalism.

The idea of ‘marking time’ is a consistent theme in Nicola’s practice; whilst some larger, more complex paintings in this exhibition have been started and finished within a matter of weeks, others which are simplistic in form have taken over six months to make, Nicola adding only one square a month before contemplating her next move, colour, title, fabric etc. These are all subject to change, leaving us to consider whether this collection could be part of a larger constellation, that might return on a different canvas, in a different room, with a different chequered floor.