The current, thought provoking exhibition at Traffic Jam Galleries is Niki McDonald’s SEEMINGLY COMPLIANT in which McDonald attempts to explore her personal journey within the common thread of women’s lives.

The exhibition is a mix of both styles and mediums. It is divided into three sections – paintings, tapestries and embroidered standing scrolls – which  one could almost say are curved in 3D .

All the works look at the traditional expectations and representations of women in a challenging way : how women were expected to be quiet, submissive ‘angels of the house’. But these works subtly challenge this and use the female gaze to make us ponder their inner lives.

McDonald is acknowledging the women who preceded her – their ambition for change has shifted the creative landscape to allow for self-expression. The women were willing to risk judgement by tapping into their passions and beliefs.

The paintings are all in a ‘Pop’ art style,  mostly in blues, and the women have a bold, powerful, charismatic presence.  Some of them appear to have been partly graffitied over and have swooping, swirling lines. 

The women are glamorous, beautiful, strong and confident. Some appear to flirt with the observer, some look as if they are ignoring us (for example ‘Te Amo’) and others regard us with curiosity. Several of them have the fashionable short hair of the 1960’s ( for example ‘Smitten’, ‘L’Amore E). 

In the catalogue we see several of the works installed in a home environment.

With the large tapestries, texture and line are crucial. Bright, bold and colourful, the women gaze passively, yet questioningly at the viewer, defined in the Pop-art style with spirited black lines almost like cartoon screenprints. They are aloof but simultaneously tantalizingly present, for example ‘Tangerine Dreams’, ‘Saffron’).

The third part of the exhibition is the curved needlepoint tapestries that are presented as if they were scrolls.  Each of the tapestries is named ( for example, ‘Faith’, ‘Pinkie Promise’, ‘Elisa’, ‘Julia’) and range in style and subjects depicted from works by Vermeer to Thomas Lawrence and other nineteenth century painters.

There is an intimate nude (‘Lotte’) but almost all the women are shown indoors reading by the window, in other household pursuits or walking outdoors.

Further, there is a depiction of a Japanese woman ( ‘Hana’) and the threads of her scroll are left hanging in octopus tentacles outside the scroll, – her mind escaping from her tedious life?

This exhibition was a fascinating examination of women, attitudes towards them, and then seeing them break down the restrictions and limitations.

As McDonald herself says,  “A common thread runs through this body of work. Paintings emerge as part of the evolutio, images and affirmations are drenched in colour and vibrate with self-expression and assurance”.

The exhibition Niki McDonald’s ‘SEEMINGLY COMPLIANT’ can be viewed on the Traffic Jam Galleries website:

https://trafficjamgalleries.com/exhibition/seemingly-compliant/