Sunset Spreads Across Concrete... Pam Evelyn Paints London in Abstraction [fn Art Snap]

Deep blue and brick red collide at the center of the canvas. On the gray-brown area at the lower right, the original color shows through along the scraped marks. “Wild Asphalt” by British painter Pam Evelyn evokes the surface of an old wall and the light skimming across it.Evelyn’s first solo exhibition in Asia, “The Wild Asphalt,” opens on the 12th at Pace Gallery Seoul in Yongsan District, Seoul. Nine new oil paintings are displayed on the third floor, and 13 works on paper on the second.■ Urban Surfaces, Scraped and Painted OverAt a press conference on the 10th, Evelyn said, “While staying in the city for a long time, I decided to look more closely at my daily life and surroundings.” Reflected light in windows and graffiti on walls that she encountered in London became starting points for her paintings. According to the gallery’s curator, small oil paintings made during her residency at Dragon Hill in southern France feature forms reminiscent of coastal waves.
“Wild Asphalt” is an oil painting on linen measuring 160 cm high and 150 cm wide. Along the edges, where the paint is applied thinly, even the texture of the fabric is visible. The artist builds up layers of paint, then scrapes them away or lets them run down the canvas. As she reworks the surface over several months, obscured lines come back to life, with new brushstrokes layered over them.
The largest work in the exhibition, “Figure and Tower,” measures 190 cm high and 150 cm wide. Orange surges up between purple and blue. On the right, dark lines cross horizontally and vertically, forming a grid like a building’s window frames. A purple curve winds around them, making it seem as if several scenes are reflected in the window at once.
In “Sun between Stone,” which measures 160 cm by 160 cm, a thin black line cuts across a pale gray ground. An orange line with a yellowish tint winds its way through. The contrast between the bright orange and the rough lines evokes sunset skimming across concrete and graffiti on a wall.■ Bleeding Colors and Open Space on PaperPace Gallery is showing Evelyn’s works on paper for the first time in this exhibition. On sheets measuring 55.6 cm high and 76.6 cm wide, the artist used different combinations of watercolor, acrylic, pastel, charcoal and ink for each work.
Evelyn explained that she made these works while staying for three months in St Ives, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. She added, “The works on paper are independent works in their own right. Their results sometimes find their way into my oil paintings.”
In “Red Hook,” blue and black lines intertwine over areas where pale watercolor has bled. The colors grow lighter toward the bottom of the work, leaving a broad expanse of white paper. Some of the blue lines extend beyond the areas of bleeding into the blank space.
“Time” layers pieces of translucent paper over a gray ground marked with charcoal. The overlapping areas are darker gray, while lines drawn underneath show faintly through the pieces. The curator explained that adding lines and colors to the overlaid areas as well creates forms that connect with the layer below.
In 2024, Evelyn took part in a three-person exhibition of British women abstract painters at Burberry Art Space in Gangnam District, Seoul. This is her third solo exhibition at Pace Gallery, following shows in London in 2023 and New York in 2024. The exhibition runs through January 9 next year and is open Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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