Georgina Gratrix's Layered Paintings at Monica De Cardenas, Milan

Georgina Gratrix (Mexico City, 1982) presents 'Notes from the Studio' at Galleria Monica De Cardenas in Milan until July 30, 2025. Her paintings feature ordinary objects, flowers, and animals, especially birds, in heavily layered pigment that verges on sculpture. The works meditate on painting and its tools—brushes, jugs, vases, tables—set in domestic interiors that blend reality and imagination. Gratrix's practice treats painting as a living body, with dense tactile surfaces that create a sculptural effect. The exhibition explores formal excess and subverted expectations, balancing attraction and repulsion with kitsch elements. Her work engages in a deep dialogue with 20th-century painting history, particularly South African artists Irma Stern, Penny Siopis, Robert Hodgins, and Henri Matisse. 'All painting is a conversation with the history of painting,' she states. The show runs through July 30, 2025.