ERIN CHAPLIN

(b. 1988 Durban, South Africa)

“I am emotional. I am sensitive. I take things too personally. I always feel guilty.

I feel like I am living between worlds. Reality, fantasy and my own reality. And time is ticking on in the background.

Still life resonates with me because it’s on the clock too. Flowers and fruit can be arranged and painted to live forever but they will die and rot. This comforts me. I don't want anything to be too perfect or too alive because that’s not realistic.”

Erin Chaplin’s work is a deeply personal and reflective. She draws her initial inspiration from her longstanding muse, nature, but reaches further – in reaction to Christian religious doctrine and in an exploration of human vulnerability – and into abstraction.

Chaplin studies the relationship between the natural and the artificial in her work, striving to capture the poignancy of youth as it fades – fresh fruit and flowers as they slowly rot. In response to the challenging nature of the genre, the floral still-life works are executed in a combination of muted tones and unexpected, contrived colours. The contrast of these tones creates a dynamism in the work that entices and surprises the viewer. In her impasto paintings, a metaphor grows to encapsulate the delicate rawness and vulnerability of the human condition as we grapple with life as it unfolds.

Chaplin was born in Durban, KwaZulu Natal, in 1988. She is a self-taught artist. She has exhibited at galleries in Cape Town and Johannesburg, including  Imibala Gallery, the Irma Stern Museum and No End Contemporary Art Space. She currently lives in Cape Town.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2022

Solo, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2021  

Hand to Mouth: From the functional to the abstract, group exhibition, P72 Project Space, Johannesburg, South Africa

Oasis, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Winter, group exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2020  

Path Through Mountain, solo, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Still, group exhibition, Everard Read South Africa & UK

2019  

Soft, solo, part of the Cubicle Series, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Works on Paper, group exhibition, RK Contemporary, Riebeek Kasteel, South Africa

2018  

Nice For What, Voorkamer Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2017  

Outgrowth, Voorkamer Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa