At Bartha_contemporary gallery, a fairy tale written by time and nature hand in hand is beginning. The exhibition “Morphosis” by British artist Lucinda Burgess brings the spirit of her artistic retreat at the Albers Foundation on Ireland’s Atlantic coast into the city. This exhibition offers not merely a way of seeing, but a profound, almost magical journey into the transformation, erosion, and preservation of material.
In Burgess’s world, seawater, salt, moisture, and light are not merely environmental factors; they appear as living agents that actively shape the work. Working across a wide range of materials — from found paper to wood — the artist records transformation rather than the fixity of form. At the heart of the exhibition stands the work “India Red 192 – Dissolution”, which consists of seven strips of deep brick-red paper submerged in seawater. Salt residues embedded in the paper fibres remain like crystalline memories, while these fragile deposits are stabilised in archival silica frames that seal the delicate tension between dissolution and preservation.
The Atlantic’s wild yet healing air also echoes in the “Atlantic Series”, where the artist combines ink washes on handmade papers with salt crystallisation. Reflecting the unstable spirit of the coastline, this series is presented with special framing methods that carefully preserve the traces left by moisture and time. Meanwhile, in the work “Salvage, Prison Cove”, the artist chooses to tell the story of “found material” in a raw and frameless way by drawing directly onto packaging waste salvaged from the shore.
In the “November Colour Chart” section, where colours are treated in a more systematic language, we encounter pigments mounted on birch plywood in states that are half-gloss and half-matte. Another captivating element of the exhibition is the horizontal arrangements made on weather-worn wooden slats found on site; these slats whisper in response to natural side-lighting and the irregularities of recycled material. With “Morphosis”, Burgess defines the act of making as a negotiation between the artist’s intention and the silent will of the material, inviting us to listen to the dignified silence of matter.
Final day: 3 May 2026
