Overview
'My paintings are meticulously rendered through soft films of oil on linen to look as though they are drawn, dyed or printed. My interest is in painting's in/extrinsic conventions and the technical problems of the medium. Central to my invented vocabulary are: the frame, flatness, surface, transparency, trompe l'oeil illusion, bands and units of isolated colour, repetition (with variation and displacement), frontality and the singularly-framed and fixed view, and the re-presentation of art and context.
The paintings are effectively diagrams or templates; illusion is codified through shaded bands and colour is in-laid as if through a process of marquetry. Colour is a veil (not a skin). The literal transparency of colour borrows from the white primer beneath so that colour glows as if lit from behind. This backlit quality is reminiscent of the screen and photograph. The analogue apes the digital; whilst the space of painting is imagined as a two-dimensional stage space that curtails fictive distance as it represents it.'
- Selma Parlour
Works
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Salon II, 2022
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Salon IX, 2022
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Salon VI, 2022
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Sepia II, 2020
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Sepia III, 2020
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Sepia V, 2020
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Salon IV, 2022
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Eftsoons IV, 2021
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Eftsoons IX, 2021
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Eftsoons V, 2021
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Eftsoons VII, 2021
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Eftsoons VIII, 2021
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Eftsoons XI, 2021
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Affirming Difference, 2020
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Double negative I, 2020
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Double negative II , 2020
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Code Margin Frame Complete, 2019
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Four ways from Sunday I, 2019
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Four ways from Sunday II, 2019
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Cloud II, 2017
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Cloud III, 2017
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Detail Shot Memory 1, 2017
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Invented vocabulary IV, 2017
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Upright animal II, 2017
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A place for placeholders, 2016
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Eleventh hour, 2016
Exhibitions
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Beyond Form
Kemal Seyhan | Selma Parlour | Albano Hernández 4 - 13 Jan 2024 LondonPi Artworks London is thrilled to present Beyond Form , a group pop-up exhibition featuring the work of Albano Hernandez, Selma Parlour and Kemal Seyhan, curated by Harper Doyle. All...Read more -
Selma Parlour
Yonder Cloud 6 - 28 Oct 2022 LondonPi Artworks London is delighted to present Yonder Cloud, award-winning painter Selma Parlour's third solo exhibition at the gallery from the 6th-28th October.Read more
Having created a unique visual vocabulary comprising framing, surface, flatness, transparency, trompe l'oeil illusion, repetition and of course, colour, Selma Parlour is known for her meticulous oil paintings that appear as though drawn, dyed, or printed.
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An Ode to Orlando
Curated by Marcelle Joseph 4 - 26 Feb 2022 LondonPi Artworks proudly presents An Ode to Orlando, an expansive group exhibition curated by Marcelle Joseph, featuring a cross-generational and international group of artists alongside the inaugural collection of furniture...Read more -
Osman Dinc | Maude Maris | Selma Parlour | Kemal Seyhan
Intersections 1 Sep - 2 Oct 2021 LondonPi Artworks London is delighted to present Intersections, a group exhibition comprising work by Osman Dinc (b.1948, Turkey), Maude Maris (b.1980, France), Selma Parlour (b.1976, United Kingdom) and Kemal Seyhan...Read more -
Selma Parlour
Selma Parlour 12 Nov 2020 - 30 Jan 2021 IstanbulSelma Parlour is known for her meticulously rendered oil paintings that appear as though they're drawn or printed.Her self-styled coda to historic abstract painting and minimalism reassesses in/extrinsic conventions from...Read more -
Selma Parlour
Activities for the Abyss 21 Nov 2019 - 11 Jan 2020 LondonSelma Parlour is a prolific award-winning artist known for her oil paintings that look as though they are drawn, dyed, or printed. With over 30 unseen artworks from the...Read more -
Selma Parlour
Upright Animal 5 Jan - 10 Feb 2018 LondonPi Artworks London is pleased to present Upright Animal, the inaugural exhibition of London-based painter Selma Parlour at Pi Artworks, where she joins our roster of international artists. All of the works are new and never before exhibited. The show is curated by Sacha Craddock who participated in the gallery’s latest curatorial season with the exhibition Strike Site.Read more
Biography
Selma Parlour, b.1976, London, lives and works in London, UK
Major exhibitions include; Feeling of Light (group), Almine Rech Gallery, Brussles (2023); Climbing the Underside of the Ladder (group), cur. by EC, Jenny Hager, David Leapman, Christine Stark, Durden and Dray Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2022); Warp & Weft (solo), Dio Horia Acropolis, Athens, Greece (2022); Yonder Cloud (solo), Pi Artworks, London, UK (2022); Ode to Orlando, Marcelle Joseph Projects, Pi Artworks, London, UK (2022); Superfice, Coleman Projects, London, UK (2021); The Long Echo, Terrace Gallery, London, UK (2021); Selma Parlour (solo), Pi Artworks Istanbul, Turkey (2020); By Way of Laughter and Trembling, Durden & Ray, Los Angeles, USA (2020); Notions of Female Leadership, Dio Horia, Athens, Greece (2020); Activities for the Abyss (solo), Pi Artworks London, UK (2019); Women Imprinted, The h Club Gallery, London, UK (2019); Upright Animal (solo), cur. Sacha Craddock, Pi Artworks, London, UK (2018); Parlour Games (solo), Marcelle Joseph Projects (solo), House of St Barnabas, London (2016); Paradoxes of the Flattened-Out Cavity (solo), Dio Horia, Mykonos (2015); Selma Parlour (solo), MOT International Projects, London, UK (2012); Selma Parlour and Yelena Popova, Horton Gallery, NY, USA (2012); and Bloomberg New Contemporaries, ICA, London, UK (2011). In 2014, Parlour was selected for Thames and Hudson's international competition and publication 100 Painters of Tomorrow. Parlour was granted Arts Council England Creative Development Award (2020) and the Mark Rothko Memorial Trust Award (2018). She was the recipient of the Sunny Dupree Family Award for a Woman Artist at the Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2017) and was a Prizewinner at the John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Gallery, Liverpool (2016). Major collections include; Creative Cities Collections, Beijing and the Saatchi Gallery, London.
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Events
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Selma Parlour I CLIMBING THE UNDERSIDE OF THE LADDER (41 YEARS AFTER A NEW SPIRIT IN PAINTING)
Group Show I Curated by EC, Jenny Hager, David Leapman and Christine Stark 15 Oct - 5 Nov 2022Climbing the Underside of the Ladder brings together 10 UK and 5 LA painters 41 years after the seminal British exhibition “A New Spirit in...Read more -
SELMA PARLOUR | WARP & WEFT
Selma Parlour solo show at Dio Horia Gallery 17 Sep - 17 Oct 2022Selma Parlour is a prolific award-winning artist known for her oil paintings that look as though they are drawn, dyed, or printed. Born in Johannesburg...Read more -
Artissima
Mustafa Hulusi, Maude Maris, Selma Parlour 5 Nov - 9 Dec 2020Pi Artworks is delighted to participate to Artissima this year with works from Mustafa Hulusi, Maude Maris, Selma Parlour. For more informationRead more -
Unreal City: Abstract Painting in London
Abstract painting in London now is a complex mixture of artistic languages, a palimpsest like the city itself. The three generations of artists in Unreal...Read more