Here & There brings together a selection of her works from the past fifteen years

A major exhibition of paintings by Lisa Milroy is 2018’s first opening at Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art.

Here & There brings together a selection of her works from the past fifteen years. With still life at the heart of her work, Milroy’s paintings explore the form through making, looking, touch and transformation. This solo exhibition demonstrates the evolution of her approach, from the 1980s, when her paintings featured everyday objects against an off-white backdrop, characterised by a quick, sweeping technique, through the 1990s, when she slowed down, expanding her subjects to existence within settings and embracing landscape, architecture, portraiture and storytelling as components of still life.

In the present, Milroy develops yet further into realms of performance and installation. Familiar motifs of clothing lead in Here & There, oft used in Milroy’s work since the 1980s.

Here & There splits the gallery space in half: Here on the ground floor, the exhibition focuses on paintings that address materiality and bodily presence through three-dimensional paintings; for example, Party of One (pictured) is a performative representation of her work with nine dress object-paintings, a wearable dress painting mounted on stands – to add to the element of show, performances will be taking place on a number of weekends. Other works, Up & Down, 2016 and Off the Rails (Ahmedabad), 2016, invite physical interaction.

Upstairs, There and the selection of monochrome works explore themes of presence and absence, loss, time and memory: this includes a twenty metre wide work, Black and White, 2004-2005, and the only work from the 1980s, Shoes (on load from the Tate).

Born in Vancouver, Canada, Milroy moved to London to study at Central St Martin’s and Goldsmiths. She was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 2005 and is now Head of Graduate Painting at the Slade School of Fine Art. Working since 2015 with Vodafone Foundation’s Instant Network Schools, she initiated Hands On, a programme through which art workshops can be digitally delivered to schoolchildren in refugee camps. She has exhibited in countless group and solo exhibitions around the world.

Here & There: Paintings by Lisa Milroy runs January 17 – March 18 at Parasol unit, 14 Wharf Road, N1 7RW; parasol-unit.org