Rhonda Nelson

Yesterday I visited an exhibition entitled Chaos and Order at the Incinerator Art Space in Willoughby.  The artists of Studio 29B (Rhonda Nelson, Anthea Boesenberg and Anna Russell) invite the audience to experience ways of decoding chaos and deconstructing pattern.  My image comes from this exhibition.

Rhonda Nelson, Order and Chaos 1, 2 & 3, Monoprint & woodblock, 78x61cm each, 2019

Several things attract me to these.
Firstly; I find the effect of the 3 pieces hung together unify a theme and create an impact that might not be so apparent were the pieces hung separately.
Secondly; the colour scheme works very well for my eye.  Whilst the yellow, red and orange overlays could be jarring and glaring the colour saturation has been reduced – creating a semi-transparent layer – thereby drawing the audience in as opposed to the pieces hitting the viewer square in the face.  Clever combinations of colour and print layers only enhance the overall patterning.
Thirdly; the subtlety of the print layers and opposition of line and shape as they blend give these pieces a complexity that engages the viewer as they attempt to look within and decipher what they see.