The J. Farrow exhibition was Cavilla’s first and marked a decisive departure from the commercial constraints of a decade spent producing commissioned murals. Within this newly self-directed studio practice, figures emerged from dense, gestural fields of colour and texture, hovering between abstraction and narrative. Shaped during a period of personal upheaval, the paintings possessed a psychological intensity that would later become central to his work. Simplified anatomy, recurring organic forms, and heavily worked surfaces established a visual vocabulary that was still exploratory, yet already recognizably his own. The intuitive method developed through this series became the foundation of Cavilla’s subsequent practice and continues to inform his work to this day.

The contextual installation views on this page have been digitally reconstructed and remastered to more clearly convey the scale and atmosphere of the exhibition.