Gillian Bradshaw-Smith: Storms of Jupiter

gillian bradshaw-smith: storms of jupiter

May 22 - June 19, 2021

Press Release

Ro2 Art is proud to present Storms of Jupiter, a solo exhibition featuring new works by artist Gillian Bradshaw-Smith. The show will run from May 22 through June 19, 2021. The exhibition will open with a reception at Ro2 Art in The Cedars, 1501 S. Ervay St, Dallas, TX, 75215, and will take place from 12-5 PM.

artist statement

"Art has always been about play for me. Play is the vocabulary of my art — the tactile enjoyment of using different materials, transforming one material into another, creating depth on a flat surface, breaking the surface into new dimensions .

Last year I saw the spectacular photos of Jupiter from the NASA probe—swirling storms flowing around the center of the immense planet and was inspired to start a series of works to capture Jupiter's power and mystery .

Using 16 x 20 birch wood pane ls, good stiff paper, and Prismacolor pencils, I cut spiraling shapes from paper and colored both their back and front surfaces. Next, I glued one end to the panel, then twisted and contorted the other end and glued it down as well. Then, I added the circular forms of the moons as punctuation to pause the swirling movement .

The whole process was a form of improvisation, of drawing the background, adding and subtracting paper forms, till the composition captured the energy and beauty chaos of the cosmos. I was not attempting realism, rather an interpretation, a romantic vision of chaos.

My ‘Mobius Knots’ are created by linking together two Mobius strips of paper. What is a Mobius strip? Unlike a regular loop, the Mobius strip is twisted before the two ends are glued together, thus creating a continuous surface. By linking two of the strips together, I created a three-dimensional drawing that I call a “Mobius Knot.” These sculptural shapes play with form, texture, and dimensionality."

about the artist

Gillian was born in India in 1933. Her parents were part of the twilight of the British Raj. Her father died young. Four years later Gillian, her mother and brother left India by boat, sailing on D Day for England during the second world war. She was eleven at the time. Gillian completed her secondary education and entered The University of Reading, England to study Fine art and painting, a five year study. The next several years were spent teaching art and painting in England. At the call of adventure in January of 1963 Gillian moved to Dallas Texas, family members sponsored her entry to the United States. She worked in Dallas making paintings, creating embroidered wall hangings and teaching special classes. Her work was shown at the Contemporary Gallery. Marriage and a move to New York City took place in 1967 where she lived worked and showed her art in many exhibitions. Gillian became a us citizen in 1976.

The art gallery that gave her her most important one man shows was Cordier & Ekstrom on Madison Avenue in New York. Headed by Arne Ekstrom a well known art dealer who showed many noted artists in his gallery including, Isamu Noguchi, Romare Bearden, Richard Lindner, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray he also fostered the talents of younger artists such as Marv in Israel, Anton Van Dalen and Nancy Grossman and Gillian Bradshaw-Smith among others.

Apart from creating fine art Gillian started to work on a large scale creating painted backdrops for publications and photographers. This work eventually led to a connection with the world of ballet and from recreating a ballet set for ‘Annabelle Lee’ for New York Theatre Ballet she went on to design and create over twenty ballet sets and continues to this day .

In addition she has been known in the world of stuffed animal toy design, having created many collections over a fifteen year period for several different makers. Possom trot was started with her designs and was well known for selling her famous mother pig that had snap fasteners for teats with suckling piglets that snapped on! Taplinger published her book ‘Adventures in Toymaking'.

She moved back to Dallas in 1995 and since, working with many noted interior designers, has created some very stunning walls ceilings and interior details for residential and commercial customers using all her talent and experience.