Young Johannesburg-born painter living in Berlin currently on show at London’s Saatchi Gallery
Carla Busuttil, Matchboxes and Necklaces, 2008, oil on canvas, 130 x 150 cm
LONDON — Carla Busuttil, a young Johannesburg-born painter living in Berlin, is
currently showing examples of her colour rich canvas work at collector
Charles Saatchi’s Chelsea gallery in London. Busuttil, a Wits graduate (2004) who
furthered her studies at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, is included on
the group exhibition Newspeak: British Art Now (on until April 17,
2011).
Winner of the Pyramid Award for Fine Art, a Deutsche Bank sponsored scheme that recognises entrepreneurship and innovation within graduating art students from some of the leading art institutions in the United Kingdom, Busuttil first made local headlines in 2008 when Saatchi acquired work from her graduate
exhibition.
Carla Busuttil, Mr. Showerhead, 2008, oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm
Like painter Robert Hodgins, a
former Wits painting lecturer (who retired around the time of the young
painter’s birth, 1982), Busuttil paints in a vividly expressionist
manner. Like Hodgins, she also shares a knack for rendering her figures as
generic rather than specific. “Often my subjects may be well-known
figures,” Busuttil has said. “However, I prefer to rely on visual cues, rather than depicting the figures as themselves.”
Busuttil has a solo show booked at the Josh Lilley Gallery in west London, in 2011.
Carla Busuttil, Chairman, 2008, oil on canvas, 60 x 50 cm
