STATION is delighted to present Julia Trybala’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. Trybala’s predominantly figurative practice draws on her own autobiography as well as art history to explore the dynamics of human relationships. Three Graces explores the intricacies of touch and human connection by repurposing classical tropes and cliches from Old Master paintings, traditional sculpture and post-impressionist landscapes and historical scenes.

Continuing her ongoing interest in scenes of nurture and care represented throughout art history, this new suite of paintings sees Trybala reference the ancient myth of the Three Graces, the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome. The Graces, or Charites, associated with fertility, sensuality, care, longing and desire, have been recreated in sculpture and painting since prehistoric Greece.

Through her use of large-scale compositions and closely cropped perspectives, Trybala subverts classical representations of the three women, contorting and folding their bodies into the canvas, creating scenes that are at once tender and claustrophobic. Subtle gestures and expressions are rendered in luscious, velvety paint, and colours that range from saccharine to hot and grubby. Her powerful paintings interrogate how women have been portrayed over time, maintaining that maternal care and labour have been crucial to artists in representing the human experience.