Project A

The Reunion: Georgina Gratrix
February 13 – May 31, 2021
c/o Norval Foundation | Cape Town

 

Happy Couple by Georgina Gratrix included in the South African artist’s first solo exhibition at a museum. Curated by Guest Curator Liese van der Watt, The Reunion brought together 25 major artworks by Gratrix, completed between 2011 and 2020, and drew upon the holdings of the Homestead Collection, based at Norval Foundation, as well as loans from private lenders. 

Happy Couple was produced for Georgina Gratrix’s solo exhibition, My Show in 2012. Writing in the accompanying catalogue text for Puppy Love, Gratrix’ survey exhibition in 2016, Emily Friedman observes that “In our 21st century rabbit hole, Gratrix has been carefully cultivating a system of painterly hieroglyphics that incorporates the uncanny, grotesque humour and blithe tropical aesthetics”, adding that “her portraits are the perfect embodiment of the illogical, as grotesque couples pose against palm tree patterned wallpaper, gently forcing pop-culture reflexively on the viewer.”

Georgina Gratrix (born Mexico, 1982) is known for paintings that feature expressive, impasto brushwork and humorous yet uncomfortable distortions of figures, objects and landscapes filtered through a colour saturated aesthetic. For over a decade Gratrix has investigated how the painted image can both seduce and challenge a viewer, while developing an immediately recognisable visual language that has a broad public appeal. Portraits of family and friends, as well as artworld insiders and popular culture icons, appear alongside oversized still life paintings of impossibly exuberant bouquets and, to a lesser extent, verdant landscapes recalling the province of KwaZulu-Natal, where the artist grew up.