London-based artist Selma Parlour plays with geometry and illusion in luminous oil paintings that appear to defy the properties of their medium.
Read MoreParlour was born in Johannesburg, and grew up in the U.K. She graduated with a BA (Hons) in Art at De Montfort University, Leicester, in 1998, and an MFA at the University of Reading in 2002. In 2014, Parlour completed her PhD in Art at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Influenced by the optical illusion technique trompe-l'œil, Parlour constructs angular paintings that distort the viewer's perception of the image. A skilled painter of oils, Parlour deploys various techniques that mimic the texture and pigment properties of dyes or drawing. Her works reflect her interest in interrogating the painting medium—its techniques, pitfalls, and potentials.
In the oil on linen painting Code Margin Frame Complete (2019), Parlour creates an illusion of dimensionality through the rendering of a pale frame around the edges of the canvas. Though dominated by a pale expanse of grey, the work is disrupted at the bottom right corner with a subtly glowing coloured segment of yellow, orange, and blue.
Parlour's process is highly considered and meticulous. She likens her washes of oils to veils that imitate the backlight of a screen, capturing the fluid intricacies of light through a medium often thought of as opaque and unmoving. The artist has stated: 'The literal transparency of colour borrows from the white primer beneath so that colour glows as if lit from behind... The analogue apes the digital; whilst the space of painting is imagined as a two-dimensional stage space that curtails fictive distance as it represents it'.
Parlour has received several awards, including the Mark Rothko Memorial Trust Artist-in-Residence Award (2018), and the Sunny Dupree Family Award for a Woman Artist (2017).
Selma Parlour has held solo exhibitions at Pi Artworks, London (2019, 2018), and Istanbul (2020); Marcelle Joseph Projects, London (2016); and Dio Horia, Mykonos (2015).
Parlour's work has been included in group exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2017); Thames-Side Studios Gallery, London (2019); Barbican, London (2012); and Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool (2018).
Selma Parlour's website can be found here, and her Instagram can be found here.
Arianna Mercado | Ocula | 2022
