Carolyn Parton

Carolyn Parton was born in 1964 in Cape Town. She earned an Advanced Diploma in Graphic Design from the Cape Town University of Technology. After a career as a designer, Parton left the profession to study further, graduating from the University of South Africa with a Bachelor of Art in Fine Art (cum laude) in 2008. Parton, a sculptor-paint, goes beyond the medium to explore paint as a physical object imbued with memory. Her primary focus is on the effects of human energy and matter transformation on living things and the environment, stemming from her interest in this possibility. Parton sees the creative act as having the potential to transform destruction. Her published research article Extended Traces: Tracking the Impact of Painter upon Environment has been the foundation of her work since 2010.

She has had numerous solo exhibitions in both South Africa and London, including Songs Beneath the Surface at the Sulger-Buel Gallery in London in 2018. She has also participated in two group exhibitions: Matereality at Iziko South African National Gallery (2020) and The Future is Female at Sulger-Buel Gallery London (2020). She has written for the University of South Africa, received the Enviroserv Waste Art Award (2008), and been a finalist at Spier Contemporary (2010). Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Constitutional Court Art Collection, the Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art, the University of Cape Town, and the University of South Africa.

Parton asserts that her goal is to fiercely look at the impact of what she does in her life, the history of the supplies she uses, their initial use and its journey.

Sources:

https://grahamsgallery.co.za/carolyn-parton/ [Accessed 22 August 2024] https://www.capetownmagazine.com/away [Accessed 22 August 2024] https://www.artsy.net/show/sulger-buel-gallery-solo-exhibition-carolyn-parton-songs-beneath-the-surface/info [Accessed 22 August 2024]