Published 29 July 2025 in News
Colijn Strydom Solo Exhibition: Run
Everard Read CIRCA Gallery - Cape Town
Ulundi House, Portswood Square, Portswood Ridge, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront 8001, Cape Town
06 - 20 August 2025
Colijn Strydom l Run XVII l 2025 l Mixed media on board l 180 x 150cm l Image Courtesy of The Artist & Everard Read CIRCA Gallery - Cape Town
Run is about the act of running. On the surface it is a series of paintings depicting this popular pastime. Figures run, stretch, sweat and stumble across the surface in candy shades of blue, orange, green and pink. Run arose from Strydom’s own experiences: “In January 2024 I started running again. I was looking for a way to rethink my relationship to my body, and running was refreshingly direct and physical. I saw my limitations expand and I became hooked on the endorphins and potential.” Within Run, the delicate figures depicted hover somewhere between drawing and painting, balancing the immediacy of the former with the depth of the latter. This juxtaposition of methodologies emphasises the metaphorical aspects of running, the inner struggle, the physicality of creating, as well as the history of art. The artist explains: “I found that working with running figures inevitably required an environment for them to be in. Quickly, ideas around the depiction of space and landscape painting developed. Running became a kind of lens to engage with past and present painters. At times I embraced traditional Western perspectives and at others I moved towards more diagrammatic and decentralised viewpoints.” Running is a loaded and relational topic, tied to language, access to space, societal pressures, aesthetics, inner drive and escapism. In these paintings, Strydom’s runners inhabit a world that is theatrical, mythological and contemporary. Many of the figures, like Daphne and Apollo, come from classical mythology, while others have been taken from images of people running races today. As viewers, we are invited to reflect on our own pace of life and consider how we navigate the world around us.
For more information please navigate to the Everard Read CIRCA Gallery - Cape Town website here