About Balbinder

"The difficulty of abstract painting has been likened to playing tennis “without the net”. The rule is that there are no rules and so the requirement therefore becomes to “unknow” what one already knows.  Instead of producing representations of things that correspond to existing objects in the world, painting becomes the recording of impulse and gesture, that is, a differentiation in focus from the objective to the subjective. If the history of art over the centuries has tended towards the emancipation of form and colour and line and perspective from rote and rule then the complex melding of the decorative forms of pattern from the well spring of the unconscious, mediated through gesture becomes the stuff of art. These paintings exemplify and illustrate this process neatly and purposefully".

"Balbinder Broadbent makes abstract paintings, rich in layers of symbolic colour that reveal and conceal shapes and marks, as though they are emerging from our subconscious or the edges of our vision.
Originally from Leeds, Balbinder graduated with a BA Hons degree in Fine Art, Printmaking from the School of Art & Design in Hull. This was followed by an MA in Fine Art, Painting from the University of East London. She is one of Yorkshire’s most interesting abstract painters and has been a regular exhibitor and prize-winner in the Harrogate Open.
Throughout the last year of lockdown, Balbinder has been creating new paintings which are shown for the first time in this exhibition. She’s chosen to title the exhibition ‘Distillations’ as this period has seen a process of refining and clarifying her signature visual language of distinctive forms and marks. She has also returned to printmaking after a long break, creating a stunning series of monochrome drypoint etchings".

Karen Southworth, 
Curator, Harrogate Museums and Arts, Mercer Art Gallery

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