For millions of years, caves have offered shelter, solitude, and sanctuary, a womb-like refuge for reflection, ritual, and creative experimentation. In Cave, Tara Marynowsky draws on this metaphorical space, far removed from suburban banality, to explore femininity, suburbia, pop culture, and nature through layered humour, chaotic energy, and vivid colour. The cave becomes a place to be tucked away from the world—free to create, free to be wild, free to re-emerge with something to say.
This series of works, ranging from delicate watercolours to large canvases worked over with acrylic and oils, forms a visual diary of the artist’s life over the past six months. Many were painted in the early morning dark, embracing silence, echoing the solitude of a cave. Marynowsky relished this freedom from the familiar and everyday, creating unruly, intuitive, richly textured paintings. The collection acts as a psychic release valve forged in solitude, laced with humour, tenderness and defiance.
Building on earlier video works like Coming Attractions (2017–19), where she defaced ‘90s film trailers such as Pretty Woman (1990), Cave is a continuation of Marynowsky’s practice of creating works that burst with subversive energy. Surface scratches, layers, and vibrant colours reveal an inner discomfort and emotional depth. She turns her focus to a female cartoon icon, Wilma Flintstone, who remains the quick-witted Stone Age mother we remember from the ubiquitous ‘60s cartoon, but here she seems busier—and more pissed off. Has she finally tired of suburban dreariness? And who is she calling on her wireless conch phone?
Cave contains layers upon layers of paint, scratches, and marks made in the near-dark, each mark laboured over and fought for. Each painting sings with intention and a rebellious charisma
Sarah Little, 2025
