Belinda Fox | Tipping the Scales: OPENING RECEPTION - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH, 2 - 4 PM
Maybaum Gallery is pleased to present Tipping the Scales, a solo exhibition by Australian artist Belinda Fox. Tipping the Scales is Fox's fifth solo exhibition with Maybaum Gallery and brings together a new series of paintings that explore growth and the strength of nature in a time of deep uncertainty. With so much conflict, displacement, and environmental crisis around us, Fox feels compelled to make work that offers a quiet resistance —an intentional act of optimism. These paintings are her way of trying to tip the scales toward something more compassionate and healing. As with much of her work, Fox combines a range of techniques— watercolor, ink, pen, collage, spray acrylic, and encaustic wax. The layered surfaces and botanical elements speak to a love of materials and mark-making, and to the richness she finds in the natural world— not as a form of escape, but as a vital source of resilience.
Two key works, The Story Makers, are based on news images of destruction and human displacement. In them, Fox is asking viewers to pause, to reflect, and to resist the increasing numbness to the ongoing suffering around us. She wants us to remember the importance of safety, resilience, and compassion in these trying times. Another pair of works, Guardian I and II, depict two trees of deep personal significance. These trees quietly watch over the studios of two long-time collaborators: Wilfred Kalf in the Netherlands, and Neville French in Australia. Wilfred’s wild pear tree, with its gnarled branches and gentle presence, stands sentinel beside his woodcraft studio in the Dutch countryside. Neville’s sprawling walnut tree, laced with golden lichen, grows just outside his ceramic workspace in country Victoria, its vibrant color and form a constant companion to his relentless curiosity and experimentation.
Fox states, "I’ve spent time with both these trees, felt their energy and quiet authority. They’ve become symbols of creative guardianship—natural anchors in the environments where ideas are shaped and refined. These paintings are my tribute to those spaces, and the quiet forces that support making."
