Does one look at this work as a whole or as a work in parts? Either way 'Dress Code' suggests to be much more than the sum of its parts.
Each individual small scale work is the painter's response to getting dressed and to the evidence of vision, one imagines a quick furtive glance in the mirror. The viewer imagines the artist is doing so with a sense of satisfaction, a degree of anticipation of the day's planning and some form of joy of being able to create work out of the mundane. As anyone involved in art education will attest, many days pass without much serious work, unless you want to say that art teaching is serious work, which it is by the way.
Not as serious as getting dressed though and Maryanne Coutts proves the point in this rather stunning collection of works over a period of about six months. Colour and pattern is the order of the day and the pose is often one of: here I go. There are images in there that are as fluid as the day that comes and then there are those that are as tentative as the start of a drawing class.
Days can go either way.
Jelle van den Berg
1st October - 2nd November 2013
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