Tristan Hoare Gallery is pleased to present Alessandro Twombly’s third solo exhibition with the gallery, featuring a new series of large-scale works on paper, ‘Inner Waters’ and ‘Bay Series’. Bringing together two distinct yet interwoven bodies of work, this exhibition sets to reveal Twombly’s ongoing dialogue with paper, as well as nature’s deep influence on his creative process.
To truly engage with Twombly’s most recent work is to firstly understand his relationship with his medium and how it informs his process. Working on paper offers Twombly a unique surface through which to explore both immediacy and depth. Paper, with its delicate texture and malleability, allows the fluidity of water and pigment to interact with the surface in ways that more rigid materials cannot allow. Marking a crucial moment in the artist’s ongoing research, this exhibition demonstrates how paper becomes an active participant in his work.
The ‘Inner Waters’ series presents the viewer with an ethereal field of blue. As a red form slowly seeps through the composition and traverses the surface of the paper, a crimson flower takes shape. Created in Twombly’s studio, this series evokes the depths of intuition through the free-from interplay of seawater, washes of colour, and the organic texture of paper. The natural qualities of the paper allow water to both reveal and conceal, offering a powerful metaphor for the workings of memory and emotion. As the surface of the paper becomes a conduit for energy, the work takes on a meditative quality, embodying the fluidity of thought and the subconscious.
In contrast, the ‘Bay Series’ was conceived outdoors, in direct interaction with the sea itself. Here, the external environment becomes a catalyst for change, resulting in this bold foray into vibrant abstraction. The series is marked by expansive, energetic brushstrokes that mirror the dynamic rhythm of the bay; its ebbs and flows translated into the marks and washes of paint. Twombly creates texture and dimension that captures the liveliness of his surroundings. As the series achieves in presenting a transcendent rendering of the traditional subject of landscape, the ‘Bay Series’ speaks to the power of nature to reshape both material and meaning.
Together, these two series explore the tension between controlled, studio-based creation and the unpredictability of nature, positioning Twombly as simultaneously reactive and reflective painter. Colour and paper are his main subjects - they command his works in an arresting fusion. Drawn to chance procedures and calibrated tones, Twombly demonstrates mature artistic skill as he pairs down light, movement and colour to its most fundamental forms to evoke the complexities of reality.
