Voltz Clarke Gallery is pleased to present a solo show titled The Quick Slow by Lucy Soni. The collection of paintings consists of Soni’s signature “scribble” paintings in color combinations inspired by and for the gallery at The Colony Palm Beach. The reception, with the artist in attendance, will be held on Friday, November 29th.

Lucy Soni is inspired by the idea of control versus chaos. Her compositions start as small scribbles on paper that communicate a sense of urgency. Through tracing, enlarging, repeating, and layering, Soni transfers these forms to canvases on a much larger scale. This process produces carefully balanced paintings which unite impulsive mark-making and high art.

Soni shares, “For me, making art is an attempt to unravel and communicate what can’t always be put into words.  It is often incredibly challenging.  My paintings are exercises in patience, accuracy and taste, seeking to celebrate colour and form, embracing the absurd pursuit of unattainable perfection.  They are informed by sadness, but attend to the opposite of sad. 

Like many people, depression came along when I was a teenager and never really left. I consider myself to be in a sort of depression ‘remission’.  I have ups and downs like anyone else and yes the black dogs can still be heard barking in the distance, but I’m one of the lucky people for whom medication and therapy have worked.  

I never wanted my depression to become my identity and so for me, my art has not been a vehicle to talk about or express my depression, not therapy, but a sort of necessity.  In fact I’ve always wanted to actively keep the two separate, perhaps an absurd ambition, as everything we see and think somehow seems to come out in the mix!” 

Lucy Soni lives and works in London. Soni graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts in Painting from Chelsea College of Art in London.