Taymour Grahne Projects is pleased to present Dark Pastoral, a solo exhibition by NYC-based Australian artist Christina Lucia Giuffrida, opening on June 24 between 5-7pm at the Notting Hill 2 space (52 Lonsdale Road) as part of a joint opening across our 3 spaces.

In Christina Lucia Giuffrida’s first physical solo exhibition in the UK the landscape takes center stage. Giuffrida, currently based in NYC, grew up in New South Wales, a state on the east coast of Australia. The diverse landscapes of home have now become a relevant source of inspiration for her artistic practice. The compositions explore Australian contemporary landscapes, with images that center the contradictions that surrounding the environment today.

Giuffrida explains,

“ When it comes to prioritizing the environment and treating it with the same reverence that other Australian assets enjoy, the environment more often than not loses out – and with devastating consequences. Ever expanding mining, poor land management, deforestation and river irrigation are just some of the major issues affecting the country, and I believe that the presiding attitudes of colonial pastoralism have lead us to this place. It feels important to make images that reflect the realities of contemporary Australia. Not just the picture perfect tourist postcard.”

The presented landscapes are drawn from real locations across Australia that are re- interpreted through the artist’s lens. Here, the environment becomes a living entity with its own personality and power. One of her primary concerns relates to the ways in which Australia’s unique environment is both revered and exploited, a tension that she is keenly attuned too. Giuffrida’s views on the country’s industrialization and ecological concerns are merged in unique ways with her feelings of lockdown nostalgia for the beautiful wide-open spaces and wildlife that she experienced during the pandemic. The less romantic optics of reality are juxtaposed with an expansive exploration of her interests in the history of the ‘Pastoral Scene’.

In one of her works, Giuffrida paints Martuwara, a life giving river that flows through the land belonging to six different Indigenous Nations, all of who have developed a sacred relationship with the river for over 60,000 years. Their leaders, in a national first, came together after witnessing the sad decay and abuse of other river systems to create the “Fitzroy River Declaration”. This declaration recognizes the Martuwara river as a living ancestral being with a right to life, attesting to the ‘Personhood’ of the river. This historic document is a major protection against adverse development proposals, although it is important to note it is not failsafe.

Red Dirt Economy and Pilbara Ranges both address the lucrative iron ore mining industry of Western Australia’s Pilbara region. This extensive intervention to nature has destructive effects on sacred landscapes and affects the air quality for employees and local populations. Giuffrida sees something 'darkly ironic' in encountering the formidable and imposing infrastructure of multi-billion dollar mining companies in the ancient landscapes of this biodiversity hotspot.

Maralinga Burial Pit is based on the South Australian Maralinga Atomic Bomb testing sites once occupied by the British Government between 1956-1963. In this arid and hauntingly beautiful landscape that was deemed uninhabitable and therefore offered to the British, multiple nuclear bomb tests were conducted over a short time period with no regard given to the Indigenous nations who were in fact still living, hunting, and otherwise using their ancestral lands. The Indigenous peoples and on-site employees were greatly affected by radioactive fallout in the wake of these tests, which led to an undocumented total number of deaths and chronic health problems and the poisoning of the ground. The initial clean up by the British was dismal left much contaminated material unaddressed, only being taken care of in full effect decades later in 1997. The land of Maralinga never fully recovered.

In all works featured in the show, the presence of Giuffrida’s characteristic purple women is felt but not always seen. They are an important element of her practice serving as not only as vehicles forexploration into a multitude of ideas, but also as embodiments of the artist and people she loves.They fulfill a deep childhood want for a kind of imagery that felt familiar to the artist but that she never felt she saw fully realized in the world. Her characters are a stark reminder that there is freedom inthe ways human bodies can be painted and that nudity doesn't have to be innately sexual. Instead, it can offer opportunities to normalize our nature and to give visibility to the multitudes of the human body.

This body of work comprises entirely of works on paper stretched over panel. Wetting the paper to achieve the malleable quality required in order to fold each corner carefully offers a sensual feeling to the paintings. When the paper dries, it becomes stiff again and the whole panel seems to have taken on this presence of objecthood through this ritual. The stretching aspect has also allowed Giuffrida tocontinue the image around the sides of the painting thus amplifying the sculptural quality of her work. Adding a tactile sense of texture to the paintings gives an element of surprise to the two-dimensional medium.

Christina Lucia Giuffrida (b.1990) is an Australian artist based in New York City. Christina has most recently exhibited with Eve Leibe (UK) Steven Zevitas Gallery (MA), Collar Works (NY) and has an forthcoming solo show with +Dinner Gallery (NYC). Her works having been featured in TOH Magazine, Front Runner Magazine, Create Magazine, Peripheries and Journal of the Harvard Divinity School. Christina earned her BVA from the Sydney College of the Arts and her MFA from the New York Academy of Art. She is a recipient of the Art Start Grant from the Australia Council and Emerging Artist Grant from the Ian Potter Foundation and has participated in residencies in Italy, USA and the Dominican Republic. Christina's works are part of the MACAAL Collection (Marrakesh, Morocco), the X Museum Collection (Beijing, China) and the Beth Rudin DeWoody collection (NYC).