Stevenson Gallery is pleased to welcome Deborah Poynton for a captivating solo exhibition entitled “A Thin Veil”, which will be open until December 14. This exhibition highlights the South African artist’s symbolic work, filled with love and dedicated to a significant figure in her life. Through a nostalgic and immersive tableau, she invites the public to discover the profound influence this person had on her artistic journey.
In “A Thin Veil”, Deborah Poynton presents a unique work that challenges visitors. This exhibition pays subtle homage to Julius Vermeulen, a maverick designer and gallery owner who passed away last February. Julis Vermeulen was the founder of the EENWERK gallery in Amsterdam, which was distinguished by its commitment to exhibiting unique works. By embracing this philosophy, Deborah Poynton highlights Ilsa, a person she has always known and who is now the subject of an exclusive exhibition.
Installation view
Ilsa was not only a friend of her mother; she was also her art teacher as a child and again as a teenager. She acted as a mentor, ally and role model for Deborah Poynton. The contemporary artist first drew Ilsa in 1982, at the age of 12, and has continued to do so ever since. Born in 1970 in Durban, her works are visually striking, often populated by figures or lush landscapes. She explains the recurring presence of these protagonists in her paintings by stating:
“Painting someone is an act of love. My brush glides over their skin, the features of their face, their locks of hair, marvelling at their realism.
I paint very few people, over and over again.
I lead a parallel existence with these people, in the world of my paintings, always dragging them around with me, keeping them close to me. I feel compelled to use these people in particular because I love them, and love is unbearable.
I feel that when I eat them whole, there is a fusion between me and them that has nothing to do with the portrait. Once they have been consumed, I hide behind the image, sated, knowing that I can no longer lose them.
Until I realize that I have captured only air, and I am compelled to resume this endless work, to weave my intricate web. In the end, a painting is only a residual shell, a by-product of my incessant attempts to have and to hold.
The title of the exhibition, “A Thin Veil,” is a metaphor for how Deborah Poynton perceives her works and the world around her. Comparing her paintings to a thin veil, she highlights the distance that separates the observer from the ultimate truth or the unknown. This veil allows us to glimpse reality, but through a filter that modifies our perception. The softened hues and meticulous choices present in her painting suggest that art offers a subjective interpretation of the world, while obscuring certain aspects, which can seem both reductive and revealing.
In her work “A Thin Veil“, Deborah Poynton explores a fundamental mystery: the world itself is hidden from us. We evolve on a stage where we play roles, often prisoners of our desires and illusions. This perspective is based on the idea that we create our own reality in a quest for meaning, guided by our aspirations. For the South African artist, painting becomes a manifestation of this paradox, illustrating the struggle between illusion and reality. Art thus allows us to navigate between these two dimensions, offering a beauty that soothes our quest while concealing what remains fundamentally unknown.
She says: “A painting is like a thin veil, suspended between me and the unknowable. Looking through this veil, I can glimpse reality in tones softened, reduced, artfully selective, brutally reductive.
The world itself is hidden from us. We exist on a veilless stage, playing our pretentious roles while pursuing our imaginary dreams. Birth and death are the violent partings of this curtain, beyond which we know nothing.
Life is full of paradoxes. We invent what we see. We desire what we do not have. We believe what we cannot know.
Painting embodies this paradox. The veil of painting protects me, its thousands of tiny brushstrokes weaving something out of nothing. The act of painting gives meaning to my existence, even as I try to fade behind this shimmering illusion.”
Deborah Poynton’s “A Thin Veil” invites us to question our perception of reality through art, highlighting the fine line between illusion and truth. With emotional depth and With its captivating aesthetic, the exhibition bears witness to the richness of art and its power to reveal, while concealing, the mysteries of our existence.