96 Tears

About

The Koppel Project presents the first major solo show of the London artist Rebecca Gilpin. The exhibition includes her latest works all produced in 2021 during lockdown.  She has continued on her path/ journey of process painting, soak staining unprimed canvas which she witnessed first hand in India as a child.  The work in this series is a manifestation of a whole melange of random connections between nostalgia and memories, and touches on themes such as spontaneity, chance, female fragility and empowerment, through the use of storytelling. 

Inspired by the female artists in America working from the 1940s to the 1970s, Rebecca Gilpin has a similar take me or leave me attitude, referencing the techniques of their paintings with current affairs.  Her approach to abstraction is similarly playful. 

She is captivated by the moments where music and art collide, naming most of her paintings after songs from eras gone by. 

Her work is an extended exploration of her take on life, each painting a large scale abstract visualisation, infused with autobiographical references and snapshots of stories she has read. Her aim is to transcend the seemingly flat nature of soak stain painting, into rich pulsating experiences, like looking through a window into a different world.

The name of the show is ‘96 Tears’ after a song from the 1960’s. The show features around 16 new paintings, including Pale Shelter (Tears for Fears from the album The Hurting, 1983), and Private Life (Grace Jones, from the album Island Life, 1980).

“I paint because I want to try and bring painting to the same level as music and to have the same impact on people and fill people with the same emotions... .” 

Rebecca Gilpin (b.1996) lives and works in London. She studied fine art for 5 years, earning her MA in 2019 at Oxford Brookes.. She joined the Koppel Project in Soho in July 2019 and had her first solo show there in November.  She has had two extremely successful solo shows at the Koppel Gallery in Poland Street.  Her paintings hang in Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, St Mungo’s women’s hostel in North London and the Vice Chancellor’s office at Oxford Brookes .   Her work has been sold to collectors in the USA, Mexico and throughout Europe. Her work recently featured in a photo shoot with Russell Tovey.