Artist: Ravelle Pillay

Goodman Gallery presents Ravelle Pillay’s American debut with Sanctum (The Light and the Shade), the artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery’s New York location.

The exhibition features a new series of paintings inspired by Pillay’s 2024 visit to Réunion Island, offering a layered exploration of the island’s complex colonial history and its enduring influence on the landscape and its people. Through her work, Pillay looks into themes of cultural hybridity, resilience and the ways landscapes serve as silent witnesses to history.

Located in the Indian Ocean between Mauritius and Madagascar, Réunion Island is an overseas department of France with a rich cultural heritage shaped by African, Indian, Chinese and French influences. Pillay’s paintings respond to this intricate past, emphasising how the present is layered on hidden and untold stories. The island’s striking topography—lush plains, volcanic plateaus, and misty mountain villages—becomes both a literal and symbolic backdrop in her exploration of identity and resistance. Pillay reflects on the historical significance of sanctuaries accessible only by helicopter or foot, along treacherous cliffside paths first forged by the Maroons, enslaved people who escaped captivity. These landscapes of refuge, marked by painted shrines and Madonnas, stand as powerful testaments to defiance and survival.

A central narrative in Sanctum (The Light and the Shade) is the story of Mario, an enslaved man who fled a plantation in Sainte-Marie. Facing capture, he prayed to a carved Black Madonna for salvation. According to local legend, a dense thicket of bougainvillea grew around him, concealing him from his pursuers. This tale, woven with themes of hope and resilience, informs Pillay’s exploration of how history is both concealed and revealed. Pillay contrasts the Black Madonna with the white Virgins scattered along colonial plantations, exposing the deep tensions between two symbols of faith.

In one large-scale painting, Grove, Pillay depicts the Black Madonna, Vierge Noire, enveloped by flourishing plant life. Her dark, solemn presence contrasts with the vibrant foliage, emphasising nature as both a witness and a narrative force. The rich, solid hues within the composition reflect a notable shift from Pillay’s typically muted colour palette, adding a heightened sense of presence and permanence.

In another painting Bounty (The after-image) a figure is partially visible behind dense foliage, its presence evident yet subtly obscured by the richness of the plants. Bougainvillea fills the painting, rendered with repeated strokes, where small leaves come together to form a larger whole. For Pillay, the land serves as an important form of archive. She reflects on archives as holding more than just collections of documents—they also encompass repositories of stories, oral histories and collective memories, all of which are shaped by the irreversible effects of historical interventions.

In addition to her thematic explorations, Pillay’s practice is deeply engaged with the formal properties of painting. She considers the materiality of her medium, from the texture of the primed canvas to the ways pigment seeps and settles. Her compositions often draw from both archival and contemporary photographs, which she manipulates and reimagines to construct layered visual narratives.

Through Sanctum (The Light and the Shade), Pillay invites viewers to reflect on the legacies of colonialism, the resilience embedded in cultural memory and the profound stories landscapes can hold. Her evocative paintings stand as acts of remembrance and resistance, honouring the voices that echo through time.

Ravelle Pillay is a South African artist living and working in London. Her breakthrough solo exhibition ‘Idyl’ took place at The Chisenhale Gallery in London, in 2023 and was concurrent with a Gasworks Residency in London. The following year, Pillay was included in ‘‘Soulscapes’ at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London in 2024. Pillay received her degree in Fine Art from the University of Wiwatersrand and is the recipient of the 2022 African Art Galleries Association’s Emerging Painting Invitational prize. Pillay’s work is held in numerous institutional collections including; Anglo American Art Collection, London, A4 Arts Foundation Collection, Cape Town, Perez Art Museum, Miami and Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University. In September 2025 Pillay will unveil a significant Institutional commission in the UK.