BIOGRAPHY
KERRI-JANE EVANS
(b. 1967 Johannesburg, South Africa)
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
“The painting process is all important to me. I do not plan my work; it begins without the conditioning of idea or even conception. It is through the action of painting that the compositions arrive, the figures move and adjust in relationship… they come and go and are my primary vehicle of expression. Figurative representation is where I find my greatest delight, that sense of pleasure and identification with the emotional aspects of life … In this very act of painting, the physical application of paint – through this energetic stillness – subtle ‘felt’ perceptions arise and my imagination grows with these perceptions. The movement of thought, of idea, of relationship, my relationship with the painting, with the world in me and around me … the images unfold through this dynamic and become the journey, the way to comprehending the self.”
WORK
In this age of cybernetics, cynicism and simulacra, there exists the misconception that art should say big things about big issues. It is a discourse driven by ‘the idea’ and lubricated by the nutrients of parody, commentary and critique. The paintings of Kerri-Jane Evans move against this flow. And the term ‘flux’ is central to her vision because, like the constant shifts of light and colour that determine and regulate the cycles of day and night, colour and brushstroke in her paintings ebb and flow, and her forms seem to morph from solid and substantial to the ethereal. It is as though Evans is reluctant to impose too much authority or ownership on the paintings.
She never completes one painting before starting another. She works – or rather reworks – on all simultaneously. Each work in inherently, deliberately incomplete. In places her mark is stylized and linear, only to be subverted by her loose brushstrokes and unpredictable palette. For Evans the greatest challenge is to accept the paradox of incomplete endings. “The image never reaches completion; rather it stops at the point where it is taken away, almost like a small death.”
CV
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
1987-1990
Bachelor of Fine Art, Rhodes University - Distinction in painting
1991-1992
Teacher at the Mmabana Cultural Centre, Mmabatho
1992-1993
Manager of small hotel, Sakatia Island, Madagascar
1991-2000
Worked on commissions
1993-1996
Teacher at the Johannesburg Art Gallery
1996-1999
Teacher at the Field and Study Centre, Parkmore
1998-2000
Teacher at Sandton Civic Gallery, Figure studies
2002–2008
Moved to India as a full-time artist
2009
Moved back to South Africa
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2020
The Portrait Show, group exhibition at Everard Read, Johannesburg
2014
New Works, solo Exhibition at Everard Read, Johannesburg
Winter show, group exhibition, Everard Read Cape Town
Summer Show, group exhibition, Everard Read Cape Town
2012
India Art Fair group exhibition, with Everard Read, Johannesburg, in Delhi
Winter Exhibition, group exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town
2011
Solo exhibition at Everard Read, Johannesburg
15th Anniversary group exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town
2010
Solo exhibition at Everard Read, Johannesburg
Evans, Hartslief, Russouw at Everard Read, Cape Town
2009
Solo exhibition at Everard Read in May 2009, Cape Town
2007
One person exhibition at Everard Read, Johannesburg
2006
One person exhibition at Everard Read, Johannesburg
2005
Five Women Group Exhibition: Hanneke Benade, Kerri Evans, Sasha Hartslief, Clare Menck & Denby Meyer, Everard Read Johannesburg
2003
Solo person exhibition at Everard Read, Johannesburg
2002
South African Group Exhibition, Everard Read Johannesburg
