Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong

Inspired by her time in Amsterdam, Alisa Margolis's Premonition is a fantastical combination of styles. Using the techniques she learnt from studying seventeenth century Dutch Flower painting, Margolis' painting speaks of the opulence of the earlier period, but within a more contemporary framework. Exploring the possibilities of applying old fashioned traditions to modern art, Premonition presents the flowers as if they are fireworks exploding in a night's sky. Transposed against a glossy black background, they appear to bring light, as the colours of the petals expand and merge. The resulting blurs and marks suggest the excesses of baroque beauty, but also the solar systems and distant constellations that would be present in the night sky. Premonition speaks of the sublime power of painting that has been present throughout art history and also demonstrates the varied skill of its artist, who has reinvented a complex tradition in a successful and unique manner.