Hold on Tight

For this new body of work, Spilman returns to colour. The shift marks an important development within her practice and introduces a renewed sense of openness into the work. In Hold On Tight, colour becomes a way of addressing nature, instability and the need for human connection. Greens and blues recur throughout the exhibition, drawing on the natural world while reflecting a familiar feeling of encountering an increasingly uncertain world and bracing for what might come next. Against this backdrop, Spilman looks towards nature and real-life connection as a counterpoint to the growing sense of distance created by an increasingly computerised age. Spilman’s work remains autobiographical in nature, but in Hold On Tight her field of vision has expanded. The personal remains present, though it now sits within a wider reflection on uncertainty, disconnection and the ways in which we seek meaning and connection in contemporary life. Where earlier works often turned inward, this new body of work allows Spilman’s own experiences to act as a point of departure for something broader and increasingly shared. Spilman’s abstraction remains rooted in physicality. Broad, continuous gestures move across the canvas through a process that is intuitive but highly considered. In the larger works, scale brings the artist’s body directly into the act of making, reinforcing the importance of touch, movement and material presence. Oil pastel lines and recurring points interrupt and anchor the painted forms, introducing moments of structure within otherwise fluid compositions. This emphasis on the physical act of painting becomes particularly significant within the exhibition, asserting the value of the human-made at a time when so much of contemporary experience is increasingly mediated through technology. The process of making these paintings also became a way for Spilman to seek out and hold onto moments of joy. Against a backdrop of uncertainty, the works celebrate experiences of happiness and connection that are often unexpected and cannot be easily planned or structured. In this sense, Hold On Tight becomes both an acknowledgement of darker moments and a refusal to be defined by them, an insistence on recognising and celebrating the experiences that bring lightness into everyday life. At its core, Hold On Tight is concerned with what we choose to hold onto. Spilman looks to the physical, the natural and the unpredictable, finding within them a sense of connection that resists the increasingly mediated rhythms of contemporary life. The exhibition does not attempt to resolve the uncertainty of the world around us, but instead celebrates the moments of joy, intimacy and spontaneity that continue alongside it. Cat Spilman received her BFA with honours from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. After working as a scenic artist in film and television in New York, she relocated to London, where she now lives and works. Hold On Tight follows four previous solo exhibitions with RHODES, alongside multiple editions released through RHODES Editions.