Preview: Darby Milbrath’s Blue Hyacinth

temptation

We are incredibly pleased and enormously proud to inform our audience that Darby Milbrath, one of the most talented and deserving painters in recent memory, will be opening her first solo exhibition on April 1st at ESP gallery in Toronto. The show is emotive and intense and humorous, as is typical of the works we have seen from Darby since she dedicated her art practice to painting. Entitled Blue Hyacinth, the show is a portrayal of human tragedy, loss and transformation. This body of work exhibits an overlapping of classical motifs of war and peace, heaven and hell, with a playful spirit and a soft sincerity. Inspired by depictions of saintly women fighting, grieving and transcending in religious themes, her paintings are diaristic and confessional while brutal and mischievous. A formally untrained painter, Darby’s work as a professional contemporary dancer and choreographer largely influences her visual art practice. If you are in Toronto do not miss the opportunity to view new works from one of our favourite painters. The show opens April 1st from 6-9pm at ESP (1558 Dupont St), and will run until April 23rd. – Olivia Whittick

The mythical blue hyacinth, known as the common bluebell, is the flower of grief and mourning. It was created out of the blood of the dying prince Hyacinthus by his grief-stricken lover Apollo, whose tears marked the flower with the words “ai, ai” (or “alas”), so that his cry of woe might exist forevermore on earth. 

 

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