Over the past six decades, Martha Jungwirth has forged a singular approach to abstraction that is grounded in the body and closely observed perceptions of the world around her. With an idiosyncratic, non-conformist approach to painting, her works occupy an intuitive space that exists beyond the formation of recognisable images, 'before spoken language', 'before memory' and 'before the obtrusiveness of objects'. The compositions reveal themselves to her during the painting process, which she describes as an 'adventure', creating in concert with her materials to produce works that are poised between chance and calculation. In contrast to the rational principles of Minimalism and Conceptualism that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, Jungwirth's paintings convey a palpable sense of self. As she has described, 'My art is like a diary, seismographic. That is the method of my work. I am completely related to myself. Drawing and painting are a movement that runs through me.' She draws upon 'pretexts' – personal encounters, international travels, art history, Greek mythology and political events – which become the triggers for fleeting, internal impulses that are recorded in paint and watercolour. Her process is a direct rhythm involving the body, with finger marks, scratches and even shoeprints remaining as a visceral record of her presence in the work. The vivid colour palette often dwells in a similarly corporeal register of fleshy pinks, blood reds and bruised magentas.