i was so sure that i had already posted about Mia Chaplin, because she is one of my favourite local artists – but somehow i have not. which means today is your lucky day. Mia lives in Cape Town and works in oil. thick, thick oil. she’s represented by WHATIFTHEWORLD where she currently has a show on called Binding Forms.
“Lady, your room is lousy with flowers.
When you kick me out, that’s what I’ll remember”Chaplin’s debut exhibition is a meditation on the quiet intimacy borne of the familiar. At first encounter her subjects appear unassuming; but on closer contemplation there is a subtle transfiguration at work. Chaplin’s paintings reveal the unexpected in the familiar, and entreat us to look again, and anew. Chaplin records her personal encounters and the ephemera of everyday, and in doing so, endows the painted subject with significance previously unseen in the original. Falling in and out of focus, the painter navigates a familiar world with unfamiliar eyes, binding together its impressions like fragments of a half-forgotten dream.
showing till the end of this month, so go check it out if you’re in town. in the meantime, enjoy the lusciousness in this post.