Arpad Beli’s untitled exhibition of seven square canvas works fills Salandra Community Hub’s foyer with gorgeous luminosity. Its deep grey wall is transformed from austere functionality to a sense of celebration. Buttery colours and textures invite us to pause and consider each piece individually.
It is the freshness that I find so appealing. Arpad says he “investigates the drift of each day” and it’s as though these works have just been created.
Visitors to the centre have been drawn to the central piece Calm, a pure white painting disturbed only by a suggestion of textured frame around its perimeter. Is it finished? Is it hiding something? Just wait. Be Calm. Allow the shadows to emerge and new dimensions become apparent.
The repetition of solid rectangles of paint, varying in subtlety of tone and colour in Emotions, Struggle and Shipyard connects these three works while Girl with Flower and The Square Rabbit Hole give us a strong connection to the subjects via contrasting shapes.
His diptych The Near End and the Far End Walked by the Violin is of particular interest to Secanners. These works were first and third in SECAN’s 2016 Whispers project, the first violin inspiring the rest of us to get involved and pass on the story.
This exhibition will be on display until the end of January, so you have plenty of time to see it. But, don’t procrastinate, go and see what you think.
