Art / Spike island
Spike Island hosts solo exhibition from the late Ofelia Rodríguez: ‘Talking in Dreams’
Colombian artist Ofelia Rodríguez (1946-2023) is characterised for making richly symbolic and often surreal work influenced by idiosyncratric motifs and memories of childhood.
“There is that sense of unreality” she acknowledged, of her aesthetic, “…a feeling of being on the edge of the world, at its margin… a feeling of being suspended in mid-air – a dreamlike state – which is inevitably in my work.”
In the context of her recent passing, Spike Island’s autumn exhibition Talking in Dreams is a true celebration of five decades of Rodríguez’s work – a period in which she studied painting at Yale University, moved to Paris to study etching and eventually settled in her studio in East London.
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Many of her pieces are characterised by her enduring love of objects, which she collected and appropriated, exoticising the everyday with new meaning.
She arranges – or enshrines – articles inside brightly painted ‘Magic Boxes’, often with doors on them, transforming them into would-be holy relics.
Elsewhere, in her paintings, iguanas, lizards and caimans are represented alongside physical fragments of the human body: hands, wounded hearts; even photocopies of mechanically altered ears.
It’s a hugely evocative and personal visual vocabulary imbued with Rodríguez’s strong connection to her home. Summing up the collection, the exhibition notes point to “the sensual colours, tropical motifs, and the many myths and legends that populate the Caribbean coast of Colombia”.
Ofelia Rodríguez: Talking in Dreams is at Spike Island from September 30-January 14 2024, Wednesday-Sunday 12-5pm (closed Monday and Tuesday). More information on the programme is available from www.spikeisland.org.uk. Gallery entry is free and you do not need to book.
All photos: Dan Weill
Read more: Flo Brooks and Asmaa Jama with Gouled Ahmed head up Spike Island’s summer exhibition programme
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