Tricia Sellmer | Unfolding

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Tricia Sellmer, “Unfolding (detail),” 2024

acrylic and oil paint on canvas, 183 x 152.5 cm(Photo: Cory Hope) (courtesy of the Gallery)

Unfolding, an exhibition of new work by Kamloops-based artist, Tricia Sellmer, is composed of eleven paintings organized into four chronological parts. This body of work was created over the past year in Sellmer’s current dedicated studio and exhibition space on Victoria Street in Kamloops. Made while listening to the dynamic and moving sounds of classical music, this backdrop of sound inspired bold brushstrokes and patterns. As the title suggests, this work captures the unfolding of Sellmer’s artistic career into movements, like a musical score, telling the story of shifting ideas and styles as her practice developed.

Throughout her artistic career Sellmer has engaged with feminism, modernism, and abstraction, best exemplified in her Tapestry Gardens Series, first exhibited at the Kamloops Art Gallery in 2002 and later acquired for its collection. Tapestry Gardens Series serves as the inspiration and an instigating force behind the Unfolding exhibition where multiple layers of paint are built up like a tapestry. Selections from the Tapestry Gardens Series are presented as a companion to this new body of work.

Unfolding begins with Sellmer’s first forays into painting, which led her to visual art studies. She graduated as one of the first Bachelor of Fine Arts recipients from the former University College of the Cariboo (now Thompson Rivers University) in conjunction with British Columbia Open University.

Next, we see her transition to establishing Chazou Gallery in downtown Kamloops, where she began to settle into her practice and gain recognition and success. The work from this time is thick with impasto oils and draws on subjects in the natural world, including flowers and landscapes. Much of this work can still be seen on the walls of Kamloops restaurants and businesses.

The third movement observes Sellmer’s incorporation of an underlying conceptual framework as she completes her Master of Fine Arts degree and showcases her own work and brings together local, national, and international artists in curated projects at Chazou Gallery.

The final two paintings speak to the tragic death of her husband and the associated trauma Sellmer has experienced. As reflected in the loose abstraction of the brush strokes and compositions, Sellmer sees this period of her career as more chaotic as she tries to piece her life and career back together in the context of grief.

Through the exhibition Unfolding, Tricia Sellmer reflects on her long and committed artistic career and chronicles significant shifts in her approach to painting from representational to abstraction over time. As a whole, the paintings in this new body of work offer remarkable insight into the unfolding narrative of an enduring and prolific artistic practice.