Quite apropos, Glamoured by Decay alludes directly to the two most striking elements of Cindy Wright’s work – the almost photorealistic beauty of the paintings, paired with the solemn morbidity of her subject matter. Flemish by birth, Wright paints in the rich tradition of Dutch Baroque still life painting, and especially the vanitas motif – an object included within the composition to remind the viewer of the fact of one’s mortality. The paintings in Glamoured by Decay, in a sense, are contemporary meditations on the vanitas idea – the exhibition is peppered with larger than life depictions of skulls, rotting fruit and dead animals. Confronting Wright’s paintings brings one inexorably face to face with the inevitability, as well as the perhaps unexpected, quiet beauty of death and decay.

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