Rebecca Haysom
Contact: beckyhaysom@gmail.com www.rebeccahaysom.co.za
My work situates itself partly within the traditional genre of portrait painting and selfportraits; I am interested in the mechanisms of biography as well as the creation of ‘selves’ through storytelling. I think of my paintings as a collection of ‘characters in search of an author’. These characters are drawn irreverently from popular culture, history, myth, or the pages of literature. Initial images culled from newspapers, personal photographs, the Internet, or art history, are re-invented to become fragments of a wry narrative. Stories beyond the frame are suggested, but elusive. This portfolio presented here represents selected recent work from various group shows 2012 – 2013. Characters in this body of work continue to explore my interest in the theatre of the absurd, and an undercurrent of restrained violence is mirrored in the tension between the controlled technique of the painting or drawing and the awkwardness of the subjects.
CV
EDUCATION
2010 – 2011 Bachelor of Arts with Honours in English Literature, WITS
2008 Business Acumen for Artists, Diploma, Graduate School of Business, UCT
2002 – 2005 Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art, Michealis School of Fine Arts, UCT
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2013 Painter’s Show, Kalashnikov, Johannesburg
2012 December Show, Intoto, Johannesburg
2012 I’d rather be swimming, Salon 91, Cape Town
2012 Paint 1, SMAC, Cape Town
2009 Studio Visit, AVA, Cape Town
2008 Fresh Meat What if the World…, Cape Town
2006 Not Yet Famous, What if the World… , Cape Town