GK GALLERY  & TEA ROOM

Tanisha Salakoh's style is born from the subconscious, articulating her thoughts, feelings and emotions through abstraction. Working primarily with acrylic on canvas, she likes to use rich tones and haphazard lines to convey her emotional state, a “Self-Portrait” of the mind.

 

Salakoh's compositions, inspired by Gerhard Richter and Jackson Pollock, allude to Abstract Expressionist and Action Painting techniques. Her technique is driven from the spontaneous act of smearing, scraping, and throwing paint on canvas, creating chance layers of texture and colour. This dynamic process involves application through use of squeegees, pallet knives, and miscellaneous household objects.

 

Initially, Salakoh's practice of abstract painting served as a creative outlet. Often driven from stress and anxiety - which is identifiable via the dynamic application of paint, and rapid sense of movement - painting was used as a form of escapism. However, as she identified parallels between action painting and mindfulness practice, she started seeing painting less as a form of escape, and more of a therapeutic practice. Abstraction allows Salakoh to tune into the present moment, bring awareness and attention to the process, and simply flow.