A Punch of Color ─ Fifty Years of Painting by Camille Patha

Throughout her six-decade career, Camille Patha's painting has oscillated between the figurative and the abstract. Patha began painting gestural abstraction in the 1960s then deliberately explored various painting styles, including hard-edged abstraction and surrealist-infused photorealism and, finally, a return to abstraction. During each era of her career, Patha demonstrated a full mastery of painting, presenting canvases that wholly embody her imagery and vocabulary with an unwavering voice and shocking vigor. Patha asserts her power as a painter by creating imagery of a complete universe that enables the viewer to be fully absorbed within a boundless volume. In her paintings, she shares a sense of wonder about the existential conundrums confronting every person and with the exuberance of her elastic symbolism. A Punch of Color is the first retrospective of her work since 1979.

Rock Hushka is curator of contemporary and Northwest art and director of curatorial administration at Tacoma Art Museum.

Rock Hushka is curator of contemporary and Northwest art and director of curatorial administration at Tacoma Art Museum.