STUDIO WEST is proud to present 16 Branches High, a solo show by London-based Polish painter Karolina Albricht. Thematically the pieces on show are a continuation of Albricht’s investigation of both formal and metaphysical concerns including colour, space, the body, movement, and gesture.

The exhibition title comes from the lyrics of Nick Cave and The Bad Seed’s Spinning Song. The phrase ’16 Branches High’ has been pasted up in Albricht’s studio for months, watching over and influencing the many facets of the artists’ ever-developing practice. Music, syncopation, and rhythm underpin Albricht’s practice. Often working to playlists, the organic line and irregular shapes seen throughout the works in the show mirror the dissonance, and indeterminacy of many of Albricht’s ‘Studio Playlists’.

As part of Albricht’s process, studio detritus is recycled to create textured surfaces and additions; sometimes anthropomorphic, the artist uses shredded jute as ‘hair’; dried paint fragments and aptly named ‘other stuff’ (pumice, sand, grit, and calico amongst other things) to fashion work that escapes the expected boundary of two-dimensional painting.

“I use a variety of materials and strategies to disrupt the image and force myself to ‘unsee’ it, re-examine it, re-configure it, and locate it again. It’s vital to me to keep the paintings open and alive, keep the curiosity and search for potential going.”

“The different scales require diverse treatments and approaches both physically and psychologically. Making the large paintings involves moving my entire body, creating a sense of the canvas and myself as two people sharing space.”

Albricht investigates the relationship between the body and the canvas. The movement of her body can be observed in the works, both small and large. Colour shifts, jagged lines and nearly recognisable forms overlap each other to generate a sense of visual potency. Her largest canvases are like realms to be entered, dwarfing the body of the viewer as they stand and observe. The smaller works, meanwhile, contort shapes, objects, and reality, creating paintings that burst out from their own seams, breaching conventional constraints of the canvas.