The Studio Art Gallery - EXHALE a Solo Exhibition by Karen Wykerd - Exhibition Header

Opening Event

Thank you to all who came out for the opening event on Saturday 16 November. What a celebration! Well done, Karen for an amazing body of work and congratulations on completing the mammoth task of a second solo in one year. Your dedication and love for painting shine through in your artwork.

Artist’s Statement

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is a rapture on the lonely shore,

There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:

I love not Man the less, but Nature more

– Byron

Take a moment to picture the warmth of the sun, its light glimmering through the leaves. The feel of water on your skin; the sound of wind rustling through branches or waves sighing onto the shore. In a departure from her usual subject matter, multimedia artist Karen Wykerd leaves the busy streets of the city behind to explore the abundance of nature around Cape Town, capturing calm spaces where one can take a moment to exhale and let out the stresses of our daily lives.

In ‘Exhale’, Wykerd is exhibiting a selection of paintings on canvas, wooden blocks, and hand-marbled paper. The process is an important part of the body of work, with elements of chance at play, acknowledging the necessity of exploring the unfamiliar in order to gain insight.

This tranquil collection of works uses Wykerd’s recognisable translucent washes of colour around figures swimming, strolling, and floating to create scenes of immersion in nature. The dreamily indistinct backgrounds and tranquil colour palette combine to give us moments of rest and reflection where we can be reacquainted with nature, and ourselves.