'Rhythm Sequence' is the first career survey of Australian artist Gemma Smith. The exhibition traces the development of Smith’s practice since 2003 and its experimentation with the language of painting. It celebrates Smith’s reworking of abstract codes and styles, as well as the testing of colour and form, pictorial depth and formal and improvised gestures.

'Rhythm Sequence' features more than 50 works, including a collection of Smith’s early paintings depicting crystalline forms and geometric compositions on chessboards; sculptural ‘boulders’ and ‘adaptables’ where colours are reconfigured and interact; hard edge and gestural works that explore the blocking, translucency, and opacity of paints; and Smith’s most recent works as of March 2019 in which colour is barely perceptible. Rather than reflect a chronology, the exhibition is sequenced to emphasise an enduring interest in the act of painting itself, with the arrangement of small boards and large canvases reflecting the physicality and the intimacy of studio work.

Curator José Da Silva