candice tripp
Candice Tripp moved from her native Cape Town, South Africa, to London in 2004. Like the realm of traditional fairytales, the world of South African born Candice Tripp is both magical and macabre.
In this domain, melancholic children and all manner of beasts are executed in oil and ink; it is a place where both joy and sorrow are as sharp as swords.
Childlike subjects add a sense of innocence to her work, though it is executed with a brutal wit that is unquestionably adult. Beautiful, illustrative, and dark, it is the very strangeness and richness of these figures that beckons us into their enchanted world.
Sedate children and their animal companions are stylishly executed in miniature, and give vision to the lessons and warnings of fables. Suspended in a world of white negative space, we are enticed to allow our imagination to build the content and context of their bizarre and gently humorous action.
Tripp’s work implores us to enter her world, shut the gate and toss away the keys.