RACHEL CAMPBELL

STATEMENT

Creativity was my escape during childhood, and continues to be my salvation and delight.

I seek to reveal the beauty within the ordinary, hidden in plain sight, whether it be the delicious palette used by a friend in her living room, the view in front of me as I sit looking out from my front porch, or the intricate pattern on the leaves of the plants in my garden. My paintings express my gratitude for a life that is so abundantly rich and for which I am overwhelmingly thankful. In a world of frequent trauma, they strike a resilient note of playfulness and hope.

I find beauty in environments. I work in abstracted realism, painting recognizable places and objects that I manipulate through color, juxtaposing flattened spaces against modeled forms. I paint some areas broadly but use graphic detail to lead the eye to the most important elements. This flexible style allows me to play with composition, to create moods with color, and to give personality and life to inanimate objects.

I also find beauty in stories. Despite the absence of overt people a human presence is always implied through the inclusion of things that they have left behind. My own memories and experiences often fuel these compositions, which are fleshed out with cherished details—a dog leash, a plant given to me by a loved one, my kitchen table. While the meaning of these personal elements may not be immediately evident, they invite viewers to make their own associations. Other people’s stories are touched,their memories stirred, and they leave encouraged to find the beauty and playfulness present within their own lives.

“If art isn’t playful, it’s nothing. Without play we wouldn’t be anywhere.
Play is incredibly important; it’s deeply serious as well.
It’s hardly a criticism of my work to call it playful; on the contrary, it is flattering!”
— DAVID HOCKNEY

ABOUT RACHEL CAMPBELL

Rachel Campbell is originally from Christchurch, New Zealand, and has lived in the USA since 2003. She attended the Otago School of Art in Dunedin, New Zealand, and the Central School of Art in Toronto, Canada. Rachel has lived and exhibited in the United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand, and the USA. She has received numerous awards and fellowships including the Durham Arts Council Emerging Artist and Professional Development Grant in 2013 and 2022, Southeast Artist Grant in the UK, and residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, the Studios of Key West, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Cambo Estate in Scotland. Her work has been featured in New American Paintings South #160, Create Magazine #29 and The Artist Magazine Spring 2020. She has been featured online on My Modern Met, and Traits D’Co Magazine in Paris. Rachel’s work is in public and private collections in many countries, including Duke University, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Fidelity Investments and UNC Rex Hospital.

RACHEL CAMPBELL FEATURED IN

Liza Roberts is the author of the essential Art of the State. She publishes a periodic newsletter called Dispatches from the Art of the State in which she shares her interviews and discussions with the best artists North Carolina has to offer.

From Rachel’s interview with Liza:

“Narrative paintings are visual poems for me,” she says. “They always embody a full story, a moment in time, a trip, an experience that has ignited in me something I want to explore.” Often that experience involves the natural world, or the interior of a home that tells stories about its absent owner, or the light of midday or midnight.

“I was always sort of embarrassed by it in my 30s and 40s, because it was just not fashionable,” she says, “but I can’t help myself. Now, I’m a bit older, and I’m comfortable saying, hell yes, we need it: A sense of joy, a sense of humor. I actually believe that the world is really thirsting for color and creativity. For an embrace of the everyday.”