Ellipse

Frac MÉCA will stage an exhibition of paintings and watercolours by British artist Jane Harris (1956–2022), opening on Friday 16 February 2024. "Ellipse", curated by Freeny Yianni, is an intimate survey of works made between 2005 – 2020.
Jane Harris’ oeuvre expresses and originates from an intense involvement with the natural world and phenomena that exist within it. Drawing from the movement of wind on water, the granular quality of dusk or a cloud backlit by the sun, Harris’ works can be perceived as flat shapes that simultaneously carry a sense of recessional depth. Like Albers, whom she greatly admired, Harris worked within a set of self-imposed rules. In her case it was the ellipse, an elastic shape that lends itself to allusion and can take on multiple identities. From these simple parameters she created images that remind us of how the basic effects of all painting lie in the movement of light passing across a surface, which carries the substance of ‘formed and transformed’ matter.

The extent to which Harris challenged the boundaries of the ellipse is also evident in her works on paper; a more intimate medium which frequently spearheaded developments in her painting. "The Ellipse" will include vitrines displaying a selection of drawings, rendered in graphite to superb effect, and often done in series, which rely entirely on her mark making and the white of the paper to conjure the sort of depths that are so characteristic of her paintings. The presence of the artist’s hand is felt in her luminous watercolours that appear to flow effortlessly from her brush in a physical action quite distinct from the painstaking precision of the mark making in her canvases. The care and discipline that Harris brought to her practice throughout her career is an enduring legacy of this remarkable artist.

• Jane Harris