Darcey Bella Arnold

Darcey Bella Arnold
Australian, born 1986; lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne

Yellow Red 2022
synthetic polymer paint on cotton duck, American red oak stand
Courtesy of the artist and ReadingRoom, Naarm/Melbourne

Artist statement:

Working within painting, drawing and sculpture my practice is informed by experience and research. Beginning with the personal as a departure point, the work drifts between intimacy, language, art history and pedagogical theses.

The painting Yellow Red speaks to the etymology of the word orange (colour). In painting and traditional colour theory, it is a secondary colour of primary pigments, created by mixing yellow and red. In English, the colour orange is named after the appearance of the ripe orange fruit. The name of the fruit comes from the French pomme d'orange. The French word, in turn, comes from the Italian arancia, based on Arabic nāranj (نارنج). This work continues my interest in language, pedagogy, and painting, with a particular gesture toward artists John Nixon and Ellsworth Kelly.