(Her
Facebook profile may show this woman as unmarried and “available”, but add the
lower box and the wedding ring is evident on her left hand! Work by Coral Spencer)
Face
booked, a solo show by Coral Spencer opened this
week at the artSPACEdurban.
Spencer is exploring the use of emoticons
and the way the social media has created ways to show emotions using these
cartoon images, allowing people to create a persona that is not always correct
and easy to hide behind. She also explores the idea that we can create a
Facebook persona and leave out or add in information to tailor our image to the
one we would like rather than what is. The person becomes what is presented,
not what is ... we are reduced to a cartoon image in a flash, a shorthand for
emotions.
Another exploration is painting in silver
leaf. She admits that it’s quite a process … but she’s loving it.
These works are a far cry from her earliest
influences which were classical, having been introduced to plaster casts of
roman classical sculpture in the basement of the Glasgow School of Art when she
was a child. This being significant, because it was the light that fell on
these huge piles of human form that intrigued her the most. A nurturing
education in Scotland and an early childhood influenced by a Grandfather who
taught art at Ndeleni training college clinched the deal.
Born and schooled in Durban as well as in
Scotland and America, Spencer is probably most widely known for her large
complex paintings of people on beaches. These display her interest in body
language and relationships.
She completed her tertiary studies at
Technikon Natal (now DUT) in South Africa in 1986 under the guidance of Jeff
Chandler, Andries Botha, Virginia McKenny, Tony Starkey and Clive van den Berg.
She has had nine solo exhibitions and has been part of many group and
collaborative exhibitions. Her work is featured in select galleries in Durban, Johannesburg,
Clarence, Cape Town and the Neu Bethesda.
Now a single mother, she often travels to
London to view the summer collections. She regularly attends and arranges
artists’ retreats in Clarence and the Karoo.
The exhibition was opened by artSMart
editor Caroline Smart, who also made the announcement that Spencer had kindly
offered to do cartoons of theatre shows for the website. Her first cartoon –
that of KickstArt’s Twitch which is
currently running at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre - can be seen on artSMart at
http://news.artsmart.co.za/2013/02/first-for-artsmart.html
artSPACE durban is situated at 3 Millar Road (off Umgeni Road) close to the Waste Centre.
More information on 031 312 0793 or visit www.artspacedurban.co.za or www.artspacedurban.blogspot.com
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