Launched yesterday at Cape Town's Stevenson Gallery 'Picnic' is South African artist Deborah Poynton’s eighth solo exhibition with the gallery.
Through a series of both paintings and drawings, the artist uses the picnic as a metaphor for exploring concepts of 'pleasure, containment and also freedom'. According to the Stevenson's Sinazo Chiya, the 'verdant scenes in secluded settings oscillate between hyperrealism and abstraction, underpainting and the unpainted; exposing the logic of their making and pointing to the illusory nature of the painted image'.
Poynton says, 'I have painted this series of "picnic paintings" because I like the idea that both picnics and paintings are fantasies about pleasure. A picnic can be an allegory for a perfect, imaginary place where beauty and pleasure abound. A painting is the same; a self-conscious framework, a way of being contained, while also tasting a bit of freedom.
'We lay down a blanket, staking out a piece of ground, and nature becomes less formless and meaningless in our eyes; it starts making sense as a backdrop to human existence. The edges of the blanket are the borders of our territory. From within those borders we feel secure enough to admire the landscape,' Poynton explains. 'I feel like paintings do the same thing for us. Inside their four edges, formlessness becomes form. Paintings show us to ourselves, in relation to the world.'
Besides the show in Cape Town, the Stevenson Gallery will also be showing Poynton’s work at the FNB Joburg Art Fair from 9–11 September.
The renowned lansdcape artist diverges somewhat from her usual style, with nudes, sketches and abstract impressions. Pictured: Fête Galante 1, 2016
Poynton says, ’I have painted this series of "picnic paintings" because I like the idea that both picnics and paintings are fantasies about pleasure. A picnic can be an allegory for a perfect, imaginary place where beauty and pleasure abound.’ Pictured: By the Sea 4, 2016
INFORMATION
’Deborah Poynton: Picnic’ is on view until 8 October. For more information, visit the Stevenson Gallery website
ADDRESS
Stevenson Gallery
Buchanan Building
160 Sir Lowry Road
Woodstock 7925
Cape Town
-
The bespoke Jaguar E-Type GTO melds elements from every era of the classic sports carECD Automotive Design’s one-off commission caters to a client who wanted to combine the greatest hits of Jaguar’s E-Type along with modern conveniences and more power
-
Casa Sanlorenzo debuts in Venice as a new hub for contemporary artThe luxury yachting leader unveils a stunning new space in a palazzo restored by Piero Lissoni – where art, innovation, and sustainability come together
-
Once vacant, London's grand department stores are getting a new lease on lifeThanks to imaginative redevelopment, these historic landmarks are being rebonr as residences, offices, gyms and restaurants. Here's what's behind the trend
-
Get lost in Megan Rooney’s abstract, emotional paintingsThe artist finds worlds in yellow and blue at Thaddaeus Ropac London
-
Kaari Upson’s unsettling, grotesque and seductive world in DenmarkThe Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark is staging the first comprehensive survey of late artist Kaari Upson’s work
-
Inside the brilliant and short career of Paul Thek: 'The goal was to live a creative existence as a maker – and he lived in a saint-like fashion'Paul Thek's paintings are now viewable at Thomas Dane Gallery in London, in an exhibition curated by Kenny Schacter and Jonathan Anderson.
-
Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska’s new show at Kettle’s Yard will uncover the missing narratives in everyday life storiesThe artists and partners in life are collaborating on an immersive takeover of Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, in an exhibition that delves into a lost literary legacy
-
Cassi Namoda is rethinking stained-glass windows at Turner Contemporary in MargateThe artist drew from an eclectic range of references when considering the traditional medium for a Turner Contemporary window overlooking the beach – she tells us more
-
Artist Zumba Luzamba on the vibrant aesthetic of Congolese fashion rebels, the sapeursThe Congolese artist takes a deep dive into a fashion subculture in his show at London's Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery. ‘I draw people in with style so that they can sit with deeper themes,’ he says
-
‘The work is an extension of myself’: Michaela Yearwood-Dan on her debut show at Hauser & WirthLondon-based artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan continues her rapid rise, unveiling monumental new paintings in ‘No Time for Despair’
-
The largest posthumous survey of Helen Frankenthaler puts her in the frame with Pollock and RothkoGuggenheim Bilbao hosts 'Painting Without Rules', a major exhibition of soak-stain innovator Helen Frankenthaler’s paintings that also includes Pollock and Rothko
