The exhibition Body Languages of Care continues Anita Fricek’s interest in the relationship between humans and plants by focusing on the postures and gestures of gardening. Bodies gardening are always involved in the performance of care. The life size figures are painted from video footage shot by the artist, and are in a state of maximum tension and movement. But going beyond a pure 'realism' the figures are also slightly abstracted - balancing the documentary aspect of the paintings with a more metaphorical content. The abstracted, geometric postures embody the independent intelligence of nature, which appears in the determination and clarity of the figures. Fricek's exhibition explores how our care for nature is also a way that nature cares for us, continuing her long-standing interest in social support systems. Systems of care orient our lives towards the future, and whether as gardening or through wider social institutions, reflect the intelligence of nature. Finally, the exhibition's focus on the body and its gestures echoes Fricek's artistic method, where she 'throws' the source material through her own body and its cognitive abilities onto the canvases, making painting a body language of care.

Anita Fricek was born in Vienna in 1967, where she lives and works. She studied art at Studio Hamilton in Florence, at the City University of New York, Queens College, and at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She was a visiting scholar at the University of Western Sydney, Australia, a recipient of the Austrian State Stipend for Fine Arts, and had residencies in London and Sydney. She has exhibited widely over the last 25 years in both solo and group exhibitions, including Turner Contemporary, Margate; MUSA, Vienna; Künstlerhaus, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam;  Frankfurter Kunstverein; Sala Rekalde, Bilbao; Museum der Moderne, Salzburg;  Artspace, Sydney; and CAC, Vilnius. For 15 years she has developed an extensive painting project investigating pedagogical models, and is currently working on the theme of gardening.