Gabbi Lancaster – Elemental

Working from her home studio in Maroubra with over 25 years’ experience (all the while raising a family and upholding her career as an art teacher), Sydney artist Gabbi Lancaster’s incredible solo exhibition Elemental will debut in October. The collection features paintings of the physical landscape as well as our inner dreamscapes, with Lancaster describing the pieces as “emotive abstractions of land and sea and sky”.

Lancaster’s desire is for these artworks to conjure a sense calmness, connection and spirituality in the audience. The transcendence felt by the artist is demonstrative in her works through her lively and spontaneous style, adding to the authentic yet ethereal feelings that they evoke in the audience. Approaching her paintings with an open mind allows her work to “emerge and transform in surprising ways”.

The paintings explore the artist’s deep yearning for unity and oneness, inspired greatly by nature and more specifically, the area of Booderee National Park in Jervis Bay, as she paints “impressions of what I see, feel and imagine”. Through her surrounding natural world, and her vivid imagination, Lancaster is able to create a collection of highly evocative pieces showing us her visions and ideas about her sense of place and her inner feelings. Elemental is her debut exhibition, opening later this month. (ASha)

Oct 22-27, 11am-7pm. m2 Gallery, Shop 4/450 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills. Info: gabbilancaster.com

BY ANVI SHARMA