Jill TRAPPLER (b. 1957)
Abstract
1997
oil on canvas
112 x 112 cm
BIOGRAPHY
Jill Trappler has worked as an artist and craft person in various projects (Thupelo, Greatmore Studios, the Bag Factory Artist Studios) over the past 30 years.
As a weaver and spinner, she explored the dynamics of colour mixing, textures and surfaces. Although she is no longer involved in these trades or the teaching of them, she applies the same sensibility to her image making, exploring surfaces with colour and mark and, as a painter, uses various tools to build her paintings.
She has exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions and in in group shows, both locally and internationally.
Living in Cape Town for the past 40 years, Trappler has worked throughout the Peninsula creating employment opportunities by teaching various crafts and art making. She established the Philani weaving project and the Intle cooperative project in Site B and Philippi. The art studio initiative at Valkenberg grew out of workshops coordinated at the hospital.
Her years spent in the Drakensburg mountains, followed by travel to major cities and isolated islands, living interactively in the heart of Johannesburg during the 1970s, moving to Cape Town in the political heat of the 1980s and working rigorously within the visual arts industry as a painter and facilitator is evident in the numerous solo and group exhibitions, workshops and projects in which Trappler has participated. An accumulation of interactive activities contributes to her daily studio practice.
Trappler has served on the Board of the Association for Visual Arts Gallery and the National Arts Council.