Tess Michalik: Sea Violet presents floral paintings that move between abstraction and naturalism, drawing on Romanticism, Abstract Expressionism, and 18th-century decorative traditions. Working alla prima, Michalik builds voluminous impasto layers where individual daubs transform into petals and leaves — flowers depicted at the zenith of their brief existence, set against flat, wallpaper-like grounds that hold them hovering in stage-like space. Pleasure and transience coexist quietly: small protestations, in the artist's words, against "the drudgery of the mundane."
