TIAN Contemporain is pleased to present As Within, So Without, the latest solo exhibition of new works by Canadian artist Sarah Tompkins. This new body of work expands on the artist’s long-standing research interests into psychological and philosophical approaches to uncertainty, understandings of the self, and their relationships to the artistic process.

​

Sumptuous, moody, earthen tones are illuminated by evocative flashes of preternatural pastels and ethereal whites. Each energetic mark explodes with a fluidity of movement as a direct translation from the artist’s internal experience to her external figuration. As these marks become layered, the composition becomes increasingly rich in both psychic fascination and formalistic complexity. Employing an artistic process that involves a number antagonistic self-imposed systems, Tompkins’ work navigates between shifting states of control, thereby liberating dormant subliminal expression from rational cognitive constraints. Somatic intuition becomes the driving force behind Tompkins’ work; what emerges on the canvas arises from an immersive interplay between the body and mind. Alternating states of conscious and unconscious, action and reaction, creation and destruction are superimposed on the canvas in a chaotic disruption of time and experience, as layers of gestural brushwork give rise to sensuous and expressive abstract forms.

​

Sarah Tompkins (b. 1990) completed her BFA in painting and printmaking at Queen’s University and her MFA in painting at the University of Ottawa. She has exhibited at SAW Gallery (Ottawa), Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston), the Ottawa Art Gallery (Ottawa), and Olga Korper Gallery (Toronto). Her works are found in the collections of Fidelity Investments Art Collection, Google Canada, Global Affairs Canada, and others. Tompkins lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario.

​

Visit artist page here.