Dürst Britt & Mayhew is proud to present Show me - What lies beyond the hills and the mountains and the earth?, a solo exhibition of new works by Paul Beumer.

For his fifth solo exhibition at the gallery Paul Beumer will present a completely new body of work. It is the first time he has ventured into the realm of batik, a traditional wax-resist dyeing technique used to create intricate patterns on textiles. Batik is primarily associated with Indonesian (Javanese) culture, but is also practiced on Sri Lanka, where Beumer regularly resides for research and collaborations with textile artisans.

In comparison to Indonesia batik from Sri Lanka tends to favour brush strokes of greater thickness that allow for free flowing patterns. It also uses more intense and bright colours, mixing traditional and contemporary styles, as well as abstract and geometric patterns. Since the 1950s and 1960s it has taken on a more informal and creative role, finding its application in the artistic field as well as in design and fashion. This painterly and open character of Sri Lankan batik appealed to Beumer, who was originally trained as a painter.

For this new series of works, he looked to the paintings of Janet Sobel and Jackson Pollock, two artists whose work he has studied extensively in the past. Both Sobel and Pollock embraced the unconscious and an intuitive way of making art within their painting practice. Their images are not organised, but rather seem to be the residue of a shamanistic rite, in which movement and ritual are more important than creating a 'beautiful' image. Beumer's batiks were also created in this exploratory and free manner.