January 22 to March 7, 2026
Vernissage: Thursday, January 22, 5PM to 8PM <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bradley Ertaskiran is delighted to present Hover<\/em>, a solo exhibition by London-based artist Sonya Derviz, featuring a new body of paintings that embrace the potential of uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At first glance, Derviz\u2019s amorphous abstractions appear effortless and unstructured, as if conjured out of thin air. Yet their captivating ethereality\u2014the result of countless overlaid traces\u2014reveals a laborious and strategic method that doesn\u2019t make visibility its priority. Reference images are intuitively assembled as quiet guides for the overall composition, chosen not for their representational clarity but for their ability to ignite a scene before receding from view. The paintings\u2019 underpinnings are also charted in charcoal, only to be concealed by the painting\u2019s completion. Over this, Derviz develops layer upon layer of semitransparent oil paint, building unbound worlds in painted form. The accumulation of these translucent surfaces both structures the painting and leaves room for chance encounters. From this shifting ground emerge weighty masses and wispy shadows\u2014forms that appear to mutate in response to their surroundings. Derviz masters a range of atmospheric effects, producing a disorienting coexistence of heaviness and air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a moment that privileges the hyper-visible\u2014when overly-saturated images proliferate endlessly, collapsing distinctions between the real and the fabricated\u2014Derviz\u2019s paintings affirm the value of what remains unseen. Painting has long been a vehicle for illusion, yet here, illusion is not a spectacle of deception but a slow, attentive process that cultivates productive, poetic uncertainty, about both what we see and how we inhabit the world. Faces and figures hover on the brink of recognition. Is a face still a face when it is untethered to a known identity? Derviz\u2019s scenes do not provide answers; in refusing the comfort of precision and legibility, and prioritizing opacity over exposure, the work questions the assumption that visibility equates to truth, suggesting instead that ambiguity offers space for reflection, attentiveness, and wonder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Derviz\u2019s hazy scenes are steeped in both suspicion and curiosity, as if something is unfolding just beyond our immediate view. Confronted with this state of not-knowing\u2014of not-seeing\u2014we experience discomfort; we yearn for clarity, to sift through the gauzy film for something direct and uncomplicated to hold onto. Yet the paintings\u2019 lack of guidance is bewildering and ultimately humbling, a reminder that precision and coherence are not irrefutable indicators of reality. Derviz creates works that reward sustained looking, particularly for those willing to search without knowing exactly what they are looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n