Lyndi Sales “Brighter Than the Sun”

Lyndi Sales, That dream where you wake up crying and you are not sure why, 2019,
Acrylic and Ink on Archival Paper, 45 x 33.5 Inches

Sales begins the work as a kind of meditation, mixing and painting acrylics in strips with different paint consistencies. The application of paint varies from watery blends that bleed into one another, to very specific gradients of light and dark. This repetitive process is then deconstructed and collated by cutting the strips and arranging them in specific piles of color sequences, emphasizing precision and flow. The strips are then glued intuitively, and arranged into their final compositions.

Lyndi Sales, Show me parts of me I have yet to know, 2019,
Acrylic and Ink on Archival Paper, 54.5 x 47.5 Inches

Earlier this year, Sales went to the Brazilian jungle to partake in four ayahuasca ceremonies with a shaman. This exhibition is partly a result of that experience, and her art has consistently explored a deep desire to see beyond the mundane. Producing this body of work was cathartic, as were a number of visual references that provided inspiration–from both the macro and microcosmic universe–including scientific images such as radial graphs of the human DNA genome, crystal formations, microscopic images, color spectrum graphs, data visualizations and coding, as well as drawings by ancient mystics.

Lyndi Sales, I’m not as innocent as I look, 2019,
Acrylic and Ink on Archival Paper, 54.5 x 47.5 Inches

These works continue Sales’s exploration of and reference to Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception and his documented experiences with mescaline. Whether we are able to access other worlds through plant medicine such as psilocybin, through meditation and yoga, or lucid dreaming, Sales is drawn to all these practices for many reasons–to escape day-to-day concerns, to see with the inner eye, to acknowledge a system that operates behind the veil of what we are able to perceive, and partly to feel a oneness with the universe. As Huxley wrote, to behold a world where “the colors were brighter and purer, and yet made a softer harmony… the winds were sparkling and diamond clear, and yet full of color as an opal…”

Lyndi Sales, Crystal beings that assist me, 2018, Acrylic on Paper, 38 x 52 Inches

For Sales, these works are a merging of dreams and wakeful hallucinations over the past two and a half years. She says, “There is often a light and a shadow side to desires, contributing to our humanity and expressing our universal duality. By acknowledging these unconscious aspects of our personalities we are able to know ourselves more deeply and realize these are merely traits that help us experience life as we know it. I was inspired by a period of intense dreaming, experiences, and feelings. I’m constantly trying to perceive my world through a lens that can see beyond the everyday. Whether our vision is stimulated through spiritual experience, sacred ceremonies, silence, or nature, I am greatly intrigued by connecting to an alternative realm.”

Lyndi Sales, Next time round we will be much closer, 2018,
Acrylic and Ink on Archival Paper and Iridescent Foil, 29 x 18 Inches

The smaller filigree cut works are inspired by shattered glass experiments, as well as net-like structures that occur in nature. Painting with clear water, and then carefully dropping India ink into the painted area, provided a process of surrender with the outcome always uncontrollable. That surrender for Sales encompasses a letting go of personality traits, our physical bodies, and any knowledge of what the future may bring.

Born in 1973, Lyndi Sales is based in Cape Town, South Africa, the country she represented at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011. Sales has held solo shows internationally at Galerie Maria Lund in Paris, M Contemporary in Sydney, and Goodman Gallery in Cape Town. She has participated in numerous group shows in South Africa, the United States, and throughout Europe. Her work can be found in various major public and private collections worldwide, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C, Texas A&M University, Library of Congress, New York Public Library, the Arthur and Mata Jaffe Collection at Florida Atlantic University, McGill University, Facebook Offices, FRAC de la Haute Normandie, Société Générale Art Foundation, France Sasol Sandton, Redbul Hangar-7 in Salzburg, and University of Cape Town.

Brighter Than the Sun is Lyndi Sales’s third show with Nancy Toomey Fine Art in San Francisco.