Bold animal colours meet Bohemian chic
Saturday September 16 2017
Messy Me, by Alexandra Spyratos. PHOTO | KARI MUTU
In bold and daring colours, Kenyan-born Alexandra Spyratos once again displays her “Bohemian Chic” style of unconventional nature paintings at the Earth Roots exhibition, on at the Polka Dot Gallery until September 17.
The exhibition is showing consecutively in Nairobi, Geneva, Vienna and at the Venice Biennale.
A new animal theme for Spyratos is the spotted hyena looking over its shoulder on a golden-yellow background with blue flecks. Not many people paint hyenas because “they are scruffy and weird,” says Spyratos. But the hyena in Nyangao Madona has a tranquil air about him.
Messy Me is a striking image of a black and pink crested crane with a startled look, a change from the ostriches that have been her main bird theme.
Spyratos reflects on the shapes and form of animals moving, like the tall rose-coloured picture called Animal Paths showing zebras galloping through vertical lines of orange and purple. On the Run is a painting of several wildebeest running.
Spyratos uses pure gold powder to create textures underneath the paintings that simulate natural elements such as the dry earth, prickly bushes and grasses. Gold, silver and copper leaf add lustre and the impression of heat in her images. The eye-catching green cheetah shimmers in yellowed grass in Savannah Beauty.
“I bridge realism and contemporary, my art therefore straddles all genres,” Spyratos says.
She also draws animals from the backside, like the elephants walking away in Earth Roots, because “elephants’ rears have so much character in the lines and the creases of the skin. It’s a fun angle to work from,” she says.
The golden paint from the elephants dribbles onto layers of pink soil, symbolic of their connection to the earth and the ground they have trod.
Dry Grasses of the Savannah is an abstract illustration infused with gold powder and glitter. It invites the viewer to imagine endless miles of dry grassland. Colourful horizontal strips fill the canvas in Sunset Tinge illustrating the myriad of colours of the sun setting in the wild.