Body Language: Cat Spilman
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This November, Cat Spilman returns to RHODES with her fourth solo exhibition, Body Language.
Continuing with her expressive abstract painting style, this new series of works on canvas were painted over several months while she was pregnant, creating a deeply personal exploration of human bodies and form, and how they develop, change and grow.
Spilman’s work is instantly recognisable for her intimate dedication to form and composition, rather than figuration or colour. While her last exhibition featured her first use of colour in her practice, she has returned to two-toned abstraction for Body Language with an immediate focus on brushstrokes and fluid movements. Mama II, which moves across two canvases, exemplifies both the physical and metaphorical expansion Spilman and her work are undertaking. The strokes seem to tumble down and across the canvases, crossing the central line and eventually flowing off the bottom edge. The sense of movement is enhanced by the additional lines in oil pastel which both follow the line of the brushstrokes and bounce between the borders of the canvas, alongside two flat white dots. This fluid form allows for more expression of change and flow, as the strokes cross the canvas, overlapping one another and leaving it completely.
The new collection features large brushstrokes that connect and grow, flowing beyond the borders of the canvas. The compositions create a meditative rhythm, indicative of the introspection Spilman often applies to her works as abstracted self-portraits. Her monochromatic palette and graphic sensibilities ensure all focus is on the strokes on the canvas and their movement and expansion. Her formative evolution is seen in The Hanger, in which the strokes are not only overlapped by one another but appear shaped by the negative space behind them. Whereas before, Spilman’s strokes formed their own shape, she is now utilising the two-toned palette to complete more complex and illusionary compositions. This is complimented by the oil pastel lines balancing the dark/light forms, and the lone dot, painted in the expanse of blank. This return to a simpler palette gives Spilman the space to bring her practice back to introspection, with a focus on the changes that have occurred, both personally and artistically across the years.
This return to her monochromatic style reflects Spilman’s evolving journey with RHODES, as her exhibitions and artistic practice have continued to expand. Since her first solo show in 2022, her popularity has surged, resulting in multiple sell-out exhibitions and three fully sold-out print editions.
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Selected works
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Collecting
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