In her latest solo exhibition, Carla Busuttil reflects on the parallel themes of growing wealth inequality and information abundance. Concerned with a global shift toward increasing wealth and technology-based isolation, Busuttil seeks to uncover and skewer the historic and present day foundations of this observed trend.

Taken from one of her paintings, the title Choice. Click. Bait. refers to modern methods of delivering and receiving information. With multiple 24-hour news networks, social media, free daily papers, and the infinite expanse of the Internet, we have almost unlimited access to information about the world we live in. And each source competes for our attention. Yet this access does not always result in clearer understanding, or a more informed outlook. Instead we experience a sense of confusion induced by the incessant blur of conflicting data. Yet the act of painting, by definition, slows this fast-paced consumption of imagery, information and pressing concern. The interaction between Busuttil’s painted and digital worlds forms the visual backdrop to much of Choice. Click. Bait.

Although she is branching out in new directions – installation, conceptualism, as well as performative video work – Busuttil’s exhibition Choice. Click. Bait. centres on her inimitable style of painting. “Painting remains my default mode,” Busuttil says, “and regardless of what other avenues I investigate, painting seems to be my route in and route out.”

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Carla Busuttil (b.1982, Johannesburg, South Africa) completed her postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy Schools, London following a degree in fine art at University of Witwatersrand. She has held solo exhibitions in London, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Milan and Seoul, and has featured in major exhibitions including Newspeak: British Art Now at the Saatchi Gallery, London and British Art Now at Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Her work is included in the Deutche Bank Global Art Collection, Saatchi Collection, Kabin Collection, and the Franks-Suss Collection, London. Busuttil also features in the recent publications 100 Painters of Tomorrow (Thames & Hudson), Painting Now (Thames & Hudson) and Picturing People (Thames & Hudson). She lives and works in Oxford, UK

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Opening at Goodman Gallery Johannesburg

Thursday 7 April at 18h00

www.goodman-gallery.com