Art Exhibitions

Born in Oxford in 1963, Elkington now lives and works in Kommetjie, Cape Town. Primarily a painter, she combines figurative and abstract elements to construct imagined, thought-provoking scenes that reflect contemporary concerns.

 

Elkington graduated with a distinction in Fine Art from RPSA in 2021, having earlier completed a degree in English and American Literature. Her affinity for both visual and textual language is evident in her paintings, where words and images interact to create double meanings and moments of irony. Vibrant colour and energetic, gestural brushwork extend the ideas in her work beyond the literal.

 

 

 

Insomnia emerges from a contemporary condition marked by information overload and ecological uncertainty. Public conversation around climate change appears increasingly fragmented: scientific urgency competes with corporate influence, misinformation, and political inertia. Within this landscape a sense of exhaustion has taken hold. Faced with the scale and complexity of the crisis, many retreat into passivity, relinquishing responsibility in the belief that meaningful action lies beyond individual control.

 

The exhibition unfolds within a world suspended between dream and wakefulness with figures reclining across sofas and exteriors, their bodies slack with exhaustion, their stillness suggesting both comfort and defeat. At first glance, the scenes appear restful, even indulgent, but these figures are not merely asleep; they are prostrate, overcome by fatigue, and supine, lying in a posture that implies surrender. In these works, such states become metaphors for a broader cultural paralysis in the face of environmental collapse and political dysfunction.

Address: 4 Bordeaux Street, Franschhoek

Tel: +27 (0)21 876 2616