PRESS RELEASE
NEILL WRIGHT: This Quiet Company
Dec 7, 2023 – Jan 3, 2024
Everard Read Cape Town is pleased to present a new solo exhibition by Neill Wright titled This Quiet Company.
The current global situation is fraught with anxiety and distressing complexities and, as a result, I wanted the work at face value to be a complete escape from that. Although they might at first glance appear to be devoid of all of these issues, however, the anxiety and vulnerability does still present itself.
While the foundational processes for the works are digital and rather controlled, I wanted to counter that by bringing my hand into the paintings through the process of collage. This also allowed for a sense of spontaneity and freedom within the confines of the stencils. This balance between freedom and control is essentially a very human endeavour – or rather battle – and I want the paintings to express that. The hand-cut stencils also present an awkwardness which I find interesting. While the paintings express vulnerability and desire for control, the physical act of making the works is very meditative and therefore serves as an attempt to cope with this condition.
Flowers are such a vibrant expression of life, while simultaneously being incredibly fragile and ephemeral, which is in fact the nature of all existence. My intention for the sculptures was to be an expression of this. Although they are fallen flowers, they still take on vibrant, almost defiant, postures. Their beauty and brightness are still present, while the exposed wood hints at the inevitability of death. They almost become walking or stumbling memento mori.
Although the works deal with broad human conditions, our understanding of and attempt at coping with these conditions is very personal, which is why I titled the exhibition This quiet company.
- Neill Wright 2023
Opening reception: Thursday 7th December - 6pm
Artist walkabout: Saturday 9th December - 11am
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Neill Wright (b. 1985) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He explores various mediums, such as sculpture, printmaking and painting as modes of expression, drawing inspiration from a variety of sources within his lived experience. The bold, multi-layered and colourful work speaks to a curiosity about and affection for the natural world, while the geographically impossible mashups hint at the chaos of everyday life. Abstract and representational elements co-exist in a seductive yet menacing way suggestive of both the exultation and terror present in the unknown and un-explored.
In 2007 Wright graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art (Honours) at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, where he was co-awarded the Simon Gerson Prize for an outstanding body of work. In 2009 he graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art, majoring in printmaking. In 2013, Wright was named one of the ten emerging South African artists to watch by The Times, and he has exhibited in a number of group and solo exhibitions as well as at numerous South African and international art fairs. His work is housed in both corporate and private collections throughout the world.
Installation images by Michael Hall
