CASA / HOUSE: Interior of Abstract Memories 2025

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A solo exhibition of abstract paintings by Gaia Starace

CASA / HOUSE: is an immersive body of abstract work that invites the viewer into a space of memory, emotion, and interiority. Rooted in the idea of home as both a physical and psychological sanctuary, the exhibition unfolds like a domestic dream - soft, unstable, and deeply personal.

The word casa - house - becomes a lens to examine the layered interplay between past and present, memory and space, fragility and strength. Within this imagined interior, a soft baby doll pink permeates the environment, acting as both a visual and emotional cue. Scattered prompts - like a cardboard, old-fashioned telephone recalling long conversations filled with laughter and confidences shared with a childhood friend, or a delicate coffee table resembling dollhouse furniture - evoke a sense of playful nostalgia. These elements gently remind us of the impermanence of material things and the intimacy of remembered moments. The pink hue, simultaneously tender and uncanny, conjures the femininity, vulnerability, and dreamlike quality of early domestic fantasies - a world where memory blurs into invention, and the familiar becomes strangely poetic. Within this space, the abstract paintings serve as emotional anchors. Created through an intuitive, process-based approach, each piece reflects not an object or a scene, but a felt experience - a gesture toward a moment, a colour that lingers like a memory. These compositions act like rooms within a house of feeling: layered, quiet, and open to interpretation.

A small selection of hand-built ceramic vessels sits gently on a table, offering grounding presence - subtle reminders of handmade rituals, domestic care, and personal touch. Their simplicity stands in contrast to the expressive paintings, yet together they form an atmosphere of contemplation.

CASA is inspired by the artist's childhood memories - of places both fragile and formative - and the evolving interiors we create as adults. Here, time bends. The house feels old, yet timeless. It becomes not just a place of origin, but a space we continue to shape as we grow.

Ultimately, CASA asks:
What do we surround ourselves with as we build our adult homes? What images do we return to? What stories do we hang on our walls?
How do we claim space - not just physically, but emotionally - in a world that often fragments our sense of self?
And what happens when abstraction, memory, and domesticity merge?

In this exhibition, the home is not rendered literally, but atmospherically. Through intuitive abstraction and subtle spatial cues, CASA becomes a dwelling for both memory and imagination - a place to pause, to feel, and to remember what it means to belong.

Image: Gaia Starace, Casa-House, 2025, mix media and digital design

Art Space on The Concourse, 409 Victoria Ave, CHATSWOOD NSW, Chatswood, 2067, View Map