Penny Siopis
Atlas
Conceived during the pandemic, Penny Siopis's Atlas series (2020-ongoing) comprises a multitude of small works on paper, with groups of different sizes presented on various shows, notably as part of her retrospective exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST), and at the 12th SITE SANTA FE International. This book brings together a selection of 204 of these paintings – 'each individual yet simultaneously part of the larger world it shares and shapes with the others' – demonstrating the breadth of Siopis's painterly lexicon, along with installation views and an introductory essay by the artist. In an extract, she writes:
The idea of Atlas is as old as the hills. For me, the weight of the world of which it speaks revolves around vulnerability, a reality that is all too palpable in our time of global conflict and existential crisis. My Atlas meditates on how vulnerable the image of the 'figure' has become in this precarious state, almost to the point of its disappearance, the line distinguishing it from its ground becoming all but eroded. Atlas materialises this situation through the play of viscous and visceral painted form, or formlessness, coalescing as visual events, material acting as gestures, rather than direct depiction. In this affair, figure and ground embrace, in mutual relation, rather than hierarchical distinction.
Published by Stevenson | 2026
Softcover, 236 pages | ISBN 978-1-0492-5729-7 | Price: R850
