LORIENNE LOTZ: No Angels

Everard Read Cape Town is pleased to present No Angels, a solo exhibition by Lorienne Lotz.

'If reason ruled the world, would history even exist?' - Ryszard Kapuscinski                                                 

Over the course of Lorienne Lotz’s artistic practice, oppression has emerged as a primary motif in her work, the absurdity of the human condition forming the broader framework for her paintings, where the political is inextricably linked with the personal.

For Lotz, the world around us reflects the deep shadows haunting our nature, and our personal struggles with the duplicities and imbalances inherent in our existence. She explains: ‘The struggle to achieve equilibrium between the opposing forces, whether in the socio-political realm or within myself, becomes the story that feeds my work.’ Ultimately, Lotz acknowledges, we know there is no hiding from ourselves, and the ironies that emerge from our deepest narratives.

For the artist, the use of images from art history reveals the reverberations through time, connecting past to present, and highlighting the timelessness of human emotions and conflicts. These polarities are mirrored in Lotz’s working process, as she navigates the delicate play between abstraction and figuration. The discordant placement of images is used to expose inherent paradoxes, and to evoke a universal pathos. ‘It becomes a dance, a hovering,’ she describes it, ‘where contradictions are questioned, where there is a search for interconnectedness and for lyricism.’

The psychological impact of colour choices, particularly the use of gold and golden hues, has been a significant aspect of this body of work. While gold references the radiant glow of the sun, and symbolises enlightenment, wisdom and purity, it also symbolises wealth and power, corruption and the abuse of trust that comes with it – two sides of the same coin. 

‘Surrounded as we are by devastating conflicts, reflecting the wars within,’ Lotz says, ‘I continue to challenge the process of my art-making by giving authority to the relevant questions of our times, and to the horror and beauty of our very humanness.’

Opening reception: Wednesday 7th August - 6pm

Artist walkabout: Saturday 24th August - 11am

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 Installation images by Michael Hall