2 portrait orientated rectangles, in an almost 4 by 3 format. The left one has a subdued cyan tone on its left side, and a desaturated orange on the right. The righthand object is cyan and white on its right side, but bare cardboard on its left. Both are textured with thick paint and cardboard, hung on a blue wall.

Mollie Balshaw, Painting Sandwich #7 & #5, 2019, Mixed Media. Courtesy the artist. Photograph courtesy of Jules Lister.

Mollie Balshaw, Painting Sandwich #7 & #5, 2019

Artist: Mollie Balshaw

Title: Painting Sandwich #7 & #5

Year: 2019

Medium: Paint on cardboard

Accession Number: US2022-12A,B

Acquisition info:

Painting in the expanded field, Balshaw’s work extends beyond the traditional bounds and restrictions of painting, exploring the painting as an ‘object rather than an image’. They consider the deconstruction and reconstruction of structures and surfaces, applying and manipulating thick brushes of brightly coloured paint on – and in between – layers of cardboard in abstract gestures.

Their work also considers the intertwined histories of gender and painting practice, where painting is ‘caught up in a push and pull between femininity and masculinity Identifying as non-binary, I find myself stuck in this whirlwind of tropes, questioning where a painter like me fits amongst the history of painting.’

A close-up of the left-hand object. Orange paint is pressed between cardboard walls, it spills out, still layered like a globular stack of paper.
Mollie Balshaw, Painting Sandwich #7, 2019, Mixed Media. Courtesy the artist. Photograph courtesy of Sam Parker.
A close-up of the righthand object, course desaturated orange and cyan paint spills out from behind a cardboard curtain.
Mollie Balshaw, Painting Sandwich #5, 2019, Mixed Media. Courtesy the artist. Photograph courtesy of Sam Parker.