STRANGERS IN A ROOM

Homme 35

26/Apr/2018 - 13/May/2018

VENUE: Cambridge Studio Gallery

As the winner of the 2017 Who is Looking at You portrait prize, Loribelle Spirovski is now taking her prize: a solo exhibition at Cambridge Studio.

Strangers in a room is primarily an exploration into the relationship between figures and space. Spirovski says; “as a portraitist, I find that it is the inanimate objects and the supposedly empty space around the sitter that fascinates me most, as they both envelop, constrict as well as define the sitter.”

Spirovski’s muse is her partner, acclaimed concert pianist, Simon Tedeschi. Their symbiotic artistic relationship is reflected in her work, with large events in Tedeschi’s career reflected in Spirovski’s paintings, both physically and emotionally. Titles of works are inspired by the music Tedeschi practises at home, and Spirovski’s experiments in form and medium have Tedeschi as the subject.

Strangers in a room has a series of anonymous portraits entitled ‘Homme’ that are drawn upon multiple people (including Tedeschi), real as well as imagined, depicting the human form in its most elemental way. Pushing paint and representation, the spaces within and external to the figure become blurred and indistinct.

Inspired by Francis Bacon, Spirovski has said that she was “scared of “Bacon but now understands that it was herself she feared.
“As a painter, my practice has become a kind of combat with the paint itself – oil paint, though not alive in the cellular sense, has a definite agency in terms of controlling it. … ‘Strangers in a Room’ is therefore the culmination of a journey that weaves together the real and the surreal, allowing me to be as alive as an artist as I can be.”

Born in the Philippines, Spirovski came to Australia when she was nine and studied to become an art teacher. As an artist, she has taken bold risks in style and established strength in her integrity by becoming a finalist in many renowned art prizes over the last 5 years, such as the Archibald, Portia Geach, Percival, Dough Moran and Black Swan to name a few.

Opening drinks: Sunday 29 April @ 2pm