Cravings: Cat Spilman

‘Cravings’ will open at the brand-new RHODES gallery space, 65 Great Portland Street, on Tuesday 12th of September, 6-8pm. The exhibition will continue until the 30th of September 2023.

‘Cravings’ presents Spilman’s most raw and honest body of work to date, opening herself up and allowing herself to be emotionally vulnerable. She investigates her own desire and our human wants and needs, addressing both the external societal pressures we face as well as our private, hidden, internal desires – both good and bad. She invites viewers to take in her works and do the same.

Following her 2022 sell-out solo show ‘Yes and Other Things’, Spilman has developed her artistic style. Continuing to use her instantly recognisable monochrome pallet, she describes these paintings as ‘darker and deeper’ than her previous work. By limiting her pallet in this way, she allows the true focus of the work to be in the composition and energy. Although monochromatic, Spilman’s works are not simply black and white, rather charcoal and beige. This move towards a more earthy palette adds a warmth to her works, a humanness that would be lost in too stark a contrast like black and white. The outcome is an authentic and raw self-exploration, with each piece akin to an abstract self-portrait.

Spilman paints using house paint, a technique she learned as a scene maker for tv and movies. The thick paint creates beautiful textures, adding depth to the works, while the brushstrokes produce unique patterns within them. The thick paint allows her to repeatedly rework the canvas, layering brushstrokes and shapes, one upon the other, until the work reaches a perfect balance, expressing the raw emotion she puts into every piece. Experimenting and adding more layers, block shapes, fluidity and movement onto the canvases, Spilman explores darker thoughts and more complicated feelings. You can’t help but humanise how the shapes and brushstrokes interact with one another, responding to each other, pushing together or pulling away.

In this new body of work, we see Spilman move more towards block abstract shapes. Moving away from her previous more sketchy style, we see her works seeming to carry more weight and density. Still with movement and energy, but somehow they have a feeling of determination and permanence to them which we haven’t seen before. There is a beauty in their honesty.

To register your interest, email info@rhodescontemporaryart.com