Neon Factory presents Bekky Beukes

Neon Factory wanted to use the opportunity to showcase young and fresh talent from South Africa in the art world and garner more attention around something that deserves more attention. Our choice for our first party, Exposure, is Bekky Beukes who has dived into painting some of the most enchanting female figures we have ever seen.

 

This is what Bekky has to say:

I am often asked why I paint 'what I paint', not only does this humble me but it also interests me.

"Why do you paint girls?"

Georgia O Keefe strung together sounds that I cannot match in describing the 'why'...

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way" - Georgia O Keefe.

To me, words are dust, I have long ago abandoned the notion that words hold truth and value... I observe and I watch, I feel and I see and I wait for truth to be exposed through actions. I paint girls because I can relate to them, they are pieces of me, bite sized memories, things I remember and I change the colors to the way I see color when I have my eyes closed.

I paint form because I am intrigued by the way the body moves, how much a body can say in a simple posture. I paint them unclothed so that they are exposed and honest with nothing to hide behind. I have much still to explore with regards to composition but I know that through form I find myself able to communicate, combined with color and contrast I can challenge perception.

'Why are they so sad?' I am asked this often as well.

I personally think pain can be beautiful, it is not angry or aggressive, the way I illustrate pain is submissive, there can be internal peace when you are challenged to understand pain through acceptance. Resolution occurs through this process, resolution encourages growth. We all fight demons, I fond the battle to be in vain, I want to acknowledge mine, identify them, learn from them I want to understand them, befriend them, play with them, pacify them, perhaps in time we can reach a compromise...

Yes, 'my girls' are sad, because they have seen and heard things, they have watched humans devour each other, poison the air we breathe with lies and falsity, with envy and jealousy. They feel helpless, overwhelmed at the odds of the world being at peace and internally channeling their own insecurity, faced with their own human error, ashamed by evidence of hypocrisy and passionately defending their right to be good in a world that promotes destruction.

"It was not dying that mattered, it was the sadness, the wonder. The few good people crying in the night. The few good people." - Charles Bukowski

To see what Bekky Beukes is up to right now go to her site : http://www.bekkybeukes.com/paintings2/

Some prints of Bekky Beukes’ work will be on display at

Neon Factory: Exposure.

ERA, 71 Loop Street, Cape Town

6^th October , 2016

A First Thursdays Initiative

Doors Open at 19h00