Tache presents Introspect, the a solo exhibition of new and recent paintings and installations by Canadian-British artist Breanna Gordon (b. 1999, Ontario, Canada). The show’s exploration of mental health is shaped by the artist’s lived experience: for Gordon, navigating this topic sees painting become a tool for healing and situates her work within current wider dialogue on the health benefits of making and experiencing art.
Gordon’s densely layered compositions explore the pervasive nature of anxiety, depersonalisation and derealisation, which are reflected in a dark palette, dramatic shadowplay and elaborate patterning. Her painterly practice renders a cast of feminine figures, fauna and domestic objects in the chiaroscuro of the Italian Baroque: Gordon’s works are not anchored to time or to place, but float along the soft boundary between reality and perception.
In her patterned works, intricate backgrounds informed by the textiles of William Morris—visualise the cyclical nature of intrusive thoughts. In service of the deeply personal nature of her practice, Gordon solely depicts women she knows intimately and objects of sentimental value. Interested in the decontextualisation of language, she subverts the sombre tones of her works with tongue-in-cheek titles lifted from contemporary popular culture; an idiomatic positioning of each painting within the throes of twenty-first century girlhood.
In the self-portrait Ghost Image (2025), the artist depicts herself twice in the same frame. Painted after a significant shift in her personal life, the double image represents Gordon’s inner confliction about the “right” direction to take in her life, and considers the psychological notion that multiple versions of oneself can exist simultaneously.
The function of the double self is explored further in Lucky Girl (2024), whose subject refuses to meet the gaze of her own reflection. From lucky girl syndrome, to red nail theory, to piping hot tea, Gordon codes virality into a new language of symbolism fit to represent the contemporary drive to manifest, medicalise and optimise, no matter the cost to our true mental wellbeing.
