Barnard is pleased to present South African born, UK-based painter, Jennifer Morrison’s first solo exhibition in Cape Town titled The Depth of Things. Morrison graduated from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design in London where she currently lives and works. The artist’s paintings project a preoccupation with colour, texture, form and the richness and flexibility of oil paint; they are unapologetically fierce in their celebration of the process of painting wherein the medium and method of their making is itself the message. Having explored the language of abstraction in painting for decades she is drawn to the relationship of one colour to another, mark making and the quality of brushstrokes. Morrison’s swirling, gestural marks are immediate and direct and challenge the viewers expectation of a painting: Telling a story is not her objective; it is the visual, emotional, intuitive impact and experience that is central to her practice. Morrison is interested in how to paint rather than what to paint. Elaborating on this the artist says “… just as a series of musical notes can convey a feeling, a mood, a memory, so can abstract painting. We all understand and interpret abstract qualities like rhythm, repetition, soft notes, the darkness or brightness of colours, areas of emptiness, the direction of marks. Small children can understand this; it is a language.” To date Morrison has had solo shows in Durban, Johannesburg and London and her works can be found in private collections in South Africa, Singapore, United States, Australia, and the UK.