South Africa ‘ s Lorraine Loots debuts in NY
Lorraine Loots, the 30-year-old South African miniature artist who captured the global media’s attention following her stunning rise on Instagram last year, made her New York art scene debut on Wednesday night with the launch of her first international showcase, #ANTSinNYC.
Dozens of New Yorkers, South African expats, fellow artists and Instagram followers poured into the Three Kings Studio gallery space in Brooklyn to view the 740 retrospective pieces no bigger than a US quarter – the product of a passion project that inspired Loots to complete a single miniature, every single day, over a two-year period.
“I think that’s one of the nice things about a show like this, that you can see the progression and how you grow as an artist, and how your style changes,” Loots told US news anchor Anthony Mason during a one-on-one interview on CBS This Morning.
Loots’s initial foray into the miniature art realm happened several years ago when a jewellery designer friend invited her to paint diminutive renderings to mount on vintage lockets, a reference to the largely-forgotten 18th century art movement.
In January 2013, after a decision not to pursue a career as a full-time artist (but not wanting to abandon the practice entirely), Loots started painting one miniature every day, uploading each one on Instagram once completed. The series, 365 Paintings for Ants, sparked a cult online and local following. She followed up the success of that project with 365 Postcards for Ants, a South African-themed collection that paid homage to the sights and culture of her home country.
Both collections sold out before their respective exhibitions.
Since then, Loots’s work has been recognised by both local and international media, including the Mail & Guardian, CNN, Huffington Post, the Daily Mail, Buzzfeed and Colossal, as well as a a few high-profile patrons:
“Lorraine Loots brilliantly paints tiny paintings, and has an exhibition in NY starting 7/8. I own two,” US actor Neil Patrick Harris tweeted last week.
“Her discipline and talent are just so tremendously apparent,” remarked a guest who attended the launch. “It also helps that she is just a lovely human being.”
#ANTSinNYC features 730 retrospective gallery proof prints and ten New York-inspired originals. The exhibition starts this week and will run until July 15th, 2015.
