Sim Smith is delighted to present Signals, Tim Garwood's latest exhibition at the gallery.
We move through a world of signs and signals, constantly reading and responding to what surrounds us: a gesture, a colour, a sound, a fleeting encounter, a change in the weather. Together, these impressions shape the way we experience the world.
Signals begins from a similar state of heightened attention for Garwood, specifically from a handful of moments over the past year – uncanny happenings that seemed to carry a significance beyond coincidence. A fallen tree, a terracotta dog unearthed from a garden, the repeated appearance of arrows in unexpected places. These moments seemed to demand a closer look, suggesting that the everyday might be speaking in ways we are not always equipped to hear.
The paintings emerge from this act of listening. Rather than depicting a fixed reality, they follow what reveals itself along the way: unexpected connections, intuitions, memories and chance encounters. Each mark becomes a trace of that process, and each painting a record of an ongoing conversation between intention, energy, the familiar and the unforeseen.