Worldart

On Exhibition

• Kilmany-Jo Liversage 'FERVA' -

  

  Kilmany-Jo Liversage 'FERVA'

  Kilmany-Jo Liversage’s 2021 solo exhibition opens at WORLDART in Cape Town on December 2.
  
  Liversage, known for voicing her disapproval of issues relating to gender discrimination and inequality, has titled this exhibition FERVA in reference to both the intensity and passion present in her work, as well as the urgency with which she views these issues.
  
  She uses spray paint and acrylic paint to add an urban graffiti-like quality to her classical portraits, blending fine art with street art elements to create paintings with energy and fervour. Her paintings have long been arenas in which the dramas of contemporary culture - fashion, advertising and graffiti - play out.
  
  Liversage is quick to point out that she isn’t a street artist. Rather, like the Pop Artists of the 1960s, she is concerned with elevating the visual culture of contemporary life to the status of fine art and so erasing the divides between the two.
  
  Also important is her ability to get her over-life-sized faces to fix the viewer with confrontational stare, which points to a subtle feminist thread running through her work.
  
  “In my portraits the gaze is always strong. It is a reversal of the male gaze – throwing it right back at them. The same goes for my still life paintings, where I challenge the objectification of women.”