Kirsten Sims: You Are Here

right now i’m just over 36 weeks pregnant and consequently not getting out of the house much. but i do browse Instagram – a lot. when i’m wide awake at 2am, when i’m lying on the couch with my swollen feet propped up on a pillow, when i’m in the bath wondering how i’m going to manoeuvre myself out of the tub when i’m done. a lot. that’s how i saw this amazing new exhibition by Capetonian artist Kirsten Sims, which opened at Salon 91 last week. i immediately emailed the gallery and asked if any of the work was still available to buy. nope, all sold out! *crying emoji*. and for good reason, too…

You Are Here is a visual quest for space and a desire to go on imaginary adventures to find the place between being lost and found. This body of work is both an exploration of narrative on a larger format and an investigation of how abstract mark making can be combined with figurative story telling. Telling stories on a larger scale feels overwhelming and exciting and that feeling is what I want to investigate with this exhibition. Using old magazines, personal photographs and the infinite rabbit holes of the Internet as my points of departure I explore the landscapes and stories from the area ‘where the pin drops’. As always my focus is on people, places, parties, palms and pets…

i love the way she depicts night skies, crackling fires and fast flowing waterfalls just with her paintbrush – amazing. You Are Here is currently on show at Salon 91 until 23 April, you definitely need to go see it (as art is always better in person). images courtesy of the gallery, photos by Bryan Viljoen.