THE JOY PROJECT - A SOLO EXHIBITION BY KAREN STEWART

PAINTER AND SCULPTOR KAREN STEWART INVITES YOU TO HAVE FUN WITH YOUR EYES

Surrounded as we are by the whirlpool of negative media, world leaders trying to out-mad each other daily, local politicians pushing thorns in our side and Kokerbome keeling over, artist Karen Stewart has picked up her angle grinder and paint brushes to create a few moments of calm and contemplation.

The over-arching theme of all Karen’s work in THE JOY PROJECT is to explore what heals and nurtures people. She believes that art has a valuable message to deliver – one that embraces the creativity, the positivity and the joy of being human – despite everything. With her paintings and sculptures she seeks to allow us to reconnect with our inner playful person and have fun with our eyes in the hope that our bodies will follow through.

This solo exhibition combines steel sculptures – an enlarging and adaptation of a series of small clay works done during the artist’s treatment for an aggressive breast cancer in 2021/2. The works are about maintaining control when things feel like they are spiralling. The precision of the pieces was a type of meditation for her. The clay linked her back to the earth – literally grounding and centring her in the health storm.

To create the sculpture she worked with CJ Morkel, an artist, welder and worker of steel with whom she studied fine arts at Wits. “It was interesting to see the unfolding story as the sculptures got built; from the small clay sculptures to paper maquettes to steel works. The message and impact seemed to evolve over time. Sculpture is slow, so different from painting which feels like instant gratification in comparison and it is hard to communicate the hundreds of hours that were put into these works,” says Stewart.

 Working the steel to bring out the underlying beauty was hard work. The raw steel plates were welded into three-dimensions, graunched with an angle grinder, ground down with a sander, then sand-blasted smooth, patinaed with ungodly chemicals and finally sealed with auto varnish. The resulting three works all stand together, having the same conceptual base – how to build yourself up when things go wrong, to seek the good message amongst the bad news and to strive for positivity when the world is down.

The painted works, framed in oak, combine abstract shapes and vibrant harmonious colours. Colour stimulates our brains and our imaginations and Karen says that she wants her works to inject life and vibrancy onto the walls of homes and working spaces. The shapes are like puzzles that we look at and try to work out in our own heads. The panels are suggestive and make you wonder whatever it is they make you wonder – she invites her audience to read their story into the works. This final collaborative act is what closes the conceptual circle – when the audience connects with a piece and reads into it something that is personal and intimate. This is the moment when the JOY PROJECT becomes real.

The exhibition opens on Thursday 5 June and a walkabout with the artist at the gallery will follow on Saturday 7 June at 11am. Everyone is welcome.