Carvalho’s paintings are exercises in selective rendering, where tender gestures of historical significance slide into the present moment. In referencing Antiquity and Renaissance imagery culled from the pages of well-trod textbooks and web-sourced imagery, Carvalho’s practice is like art historical archaeology, combing through narrative passages of information and time gone by. Oddly cropped and collapsed into shallow spaces, her paintings are interpretations estranged from their origin, unconventional and phantasmic. Each is a tangible investigation realized through the process of mining and removal. The artist considers how visual data circulates or vanishes, as is often the case. Palimpsestic surfaces bear traces of dried pigment made by a method of slow composition, where thin veneers of paint are built over time, like a cinematic long take. In this way, the paintings mimic the experience of a duration, where initial boredom transforms with sustained looking, and gradual shifts in materials, color, shape, and sound reveal the longer you look. This malaise in viewing allows scenes to unfurl at their own pace, with gaps filled by imaginative conjecture.
“CARVALHO’S SMOOTHLY RENDERED OIL PAINTINGS BORROW FRAGMENTS AND DETAILS FROM HISTORICAL PAINTINGS THAT HAIL FROM THE FAULT LINE BETWEEN THE LATE MEDIAEVAL AND EARLY RENAISSANCE AND RECONFIGURE THEM INTO A SEMIOTIC ANARCHY. HERE DISEMBODIED ARMS FLOAT IN REFINED ARCHITECTURAL SPACE, GRASPING AT AN ORNATELY HILTED SWORD. TWO SMALLER WORKS REPORT STRANGE, COMPELLING, GOTHIC SCENES FROM THE DISTANT PAST”
[Excerpt from Field of Difference, an essay by
Nick Hackworth].