Exuberance

Exuberance

Acrylic and spray paint on stretched canvas

Len van Zyl, 2024

think of Exuberance as a conversation between ancient silence and modern noise. The moai figure stands there, unbothered, while the colours pulse and shimmer around it — a visual metaphor for how the old spirits endure within the chaos of contemporary life. My use of stencils, lettering, and honeycomb grids is about layering voices: human marks trying to reach coherence. But in the end, the most powerful presence in the painting is that profile — wordless, timeless, still.

There’s something about Exuberance that continues to hum beneath my skin. It isn’t the most complex piece I’ve made, yet it carries a feeling that stays with me — joy that doesn’t apologise, colour that won’t fade. When I see it on a rug in someone’s home or printed on my own clothing, it feels like a piece of my energy is moving through other lives. Maybe that’s why it clicks so deeply: it represents the moment where art escaped the canvas and became part of living. The moai shape, that quiet figure watching through the storm of colour, feels like my own still centre — the calm presence behind the chaos. Exuberance is me, at peace with motion, alive in my own skin.