Face to Face,

Naomi Kaempfer - 17 July till 14 August 2021

Naomi has always been captivated by the human face.  For her portraits, with a few exceptions, Naomi paints people she knows personally, being drawn to facial strength, complexity and intensity.  During the Covid pandemic, Naomi’s fascination expanded to discovering the fruits of confinement and life around the corner.  In particular, she aims to capture the feeling of the street and her dog Charlie as he draws the neighbourhoodchildren to him like the Pied Piper.  Her studies are all prepared on cardboard, parts of old industrial boxes, which easily absorb the fluidity of the oil paint.  In some cases, colour voids have been left to reveal the warmth of the material base, like a child’s drawing, incomplete and open to life.

“Face 2 Face is the vulnerability we share in closeness, tenderness.  It is the touch we wish would never end, the brutal authenticity, the unspoken gaze, the beating hearts and compassion when we witness each other.  It is a reflection of our humanity, of our surrender to a reality and a present moment that is sometimes inexplicable in its beauty or its injustice.”

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