Artist Statement

Creativity was my escape during childhood and continues to be my joy and salvation.

I seek to reveal beauty in the ordinary, whether it be in a brightly colored curtain in a trailer home window, a tree growing amidst small-town architecture, or the intricate pattern on a second-hand chair. I look for the playful side of things normally seen as ugly or mundane and draw attention to the commonly overlooked.

My colorful paintings depict environments and their stories. I choose to work in abstracted realism, painting recognizable places and objects that I manipulate through color and juxtapositions of flattened spaces against modeled forms. I broadly paint some areas and use graphic detail to lead the eye to the most important objects in the story. This style of painting allows me to play with composition, to create moods with color, and to give personality and life to inanimate objects. 

A human presence is implied by the absence of people and the inclusion of things they have left behind. Memories and experiences fuel my paintings, fleshed out with cherished details from my life—a dog leash, a plant given to me by a loved one, a favorite book, my kitchen table. While the meaning of these personal elements may not be immediately evident, their universality invites viewers to make their own associations. My hope is that my paintings bring forth other people’s stories and stir their memories, encouraging them to find beauty and playfulness in their own daily lives.  

“I want to visit the places Rachel Campbell depicts in oil on canvas. These are real places—London as seen from the South Bank, a trailer park, a simple white house on a suburban street. But something about the way Campbell depicts them renders them absolutely magical, at once true to how they exist in real life, and yet utterly dreamy and luminescent.

I want so much to visit these places and thanks to Campbell I have, as best one possibly can. These places—at least how they are depicted here—do not exist out in the world. They exist in Campbell’s own experience and memory.

How fortunate that she has the technical ability and generosity of spirit to have expended the effort of translating them onto painted canvas for us all to see. The hope then is that her vision can color ours, encouraging others to see the wonders she sees out there.”

— Lori Waxman, Chicago Tribune Art Critic

Rachel Campbell is originally from New Zealand, and has been living in the USA since 2003. She studied art in both New Zealand and Canada, and has also spent time living and exhibiting in the UK and Germany.

Gallery Representation

• Zinc Contemporary, Seattle

• Craven Allen Gallery, Durham

• Momentum Gallery, Asheville

• Mahler Fine Art, Raleigh

• Singulart, Paris

Upcoming Events

July 2022 Seattle Art Fair

July 2022 Solo Show Craven Allen Gallery

August 2022 New American Paintings

2022 Durham Arts Council Grant Recipient

Private Collections

Rachel’s artwork is currently held internationally in private collections in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, South Africa, Australia, China, the USA, and Canada.

• upcoming. 2023 Momentum Gallery Asheville

• 2023 NCSSM Durham Oddly Familiar

• 2022  Craven Allen Gallery Durham ‘Tell All the Truth but Tell it Slant”

• 2021 Zinc Contemporary The Year of Small Things

• 2019 Zinc Contemporary Seattle What are You Looking For

• 2019 Seattle Art Fair Zinc Contemporary

• 2019 Craven Allen Gallery Durham The Flipside of Ordinary

• 2018 Fruitlands Art Museum Harvard MA. A New View.

• 2018 Craven Allen Gallery Durham NC -September.

• 2018 Zinc Contemporary Seattle Strangely Normal

• 2017 Around the World. Craven Allen Gallery, Durham NC

• 2017 Ella Pratt Gallery. Durham Arts Council    

• 2015 Duke University Hospital, Durham NC.

• 2013 Durham Art Guild, There and Back Again: Durham NC

• 2011 The Visual Art Exchange, Artist Showcase, Raleigh NC

• 2009 Durham Art Guild, Durham NC

• 2008 Horace Williams House, Chapel Hill NC

• 2005 Fluid Art, Rachel Campbell (curated by Jackie Gregson) Reigate UK

• 2003 Duncan Miller Fine Arts - Hampstead, London UK

• 2001 The Deutsch-Amerikaner Institüt, Heidelberg Germany

• 2022 Seattle Art Fair Zinc Contemporary

• 2020 Momentum Gallery Ashville NC

• 2019 Greenhill Arts Center Greensboro. Sweet

• 2019 Raleigh Fine Arts Society Arts Showcase Curator Chad Alligood.

• 2017 Myrtle Beach Art Museum, Feast Your Eyes, Celebrating Food of the South. (June-September)

• 2016 Block Gallery Raleigh Civic Building NC, Structures

• 2016 Tyndall Gallery Chapel Hill, with Linda Dickenson and Jeffery Batchelor

• 2015 Carpe Diem. Gallery 2, Art Space Raleigh, NC.

• 2015 Fresh Artspace, Raleigh NC juror Cora Fischer

• 2015 CGA Elder Gallery Charlotte NC

• 2015 Zinc Contemporary. Edmonds WA

• 2015 Local Inside and Out. Frank Gallery, Chapel Hill NC

• 2015 Contemporary South. Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh NC. Juror Chad Alligood

• 2013  Theatre Art Galleries High Point NC Juried Group Show: The Bicycle—Art meets Form (honorable mention), High Point NC

• 2012 The University of North Carolina Greensboro ‘Hunger’ Southern Food Culture, Greensboro NC

• 2011 The Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh NC Contemporary South Exhibition, Raleigh NC

• 2011 Golden Belt Studios, 12 x 12 Group Show, Durham NC

• 2011 Gallery 311, Golden Belt Artists’ Show, Raleigh NC

• 2010 Greenhill Arts Center, NC Winter Show, Greensboro NC

• 2010 The Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh NC Scope Show, Raleigh NC         

• 2009 The Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh NC, Scope Show (membership winner), Raleigh NC

• 2007 Durham Art Guild, Annual Juried Show, Durham NC

• 2007 Tyndall Galleries, Travelogue, Chapel Hill NC

• 2007 Private Collectors’ Show, Rachel Campbell, Tama Hochbaum, and Jeanette Stargala, Chapel Hill NC

• 1997 The Royal Academy of Arts, Summer Show, London UK

• 2023 San Fransisco Art Market

• 2022 Seattle Art Fair

• 2021 Seattle Art Fair

• 2005 The Affordable Art Fair, London UK

• 2003 The Affordable Art Fair, London UK

• 2002 Fresh Art Fair, Islington Design Centre, London UK

• 1997 The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Show, London UK

• 2022 Durham Arts Council Emerging Artist Professional Development Grant

• 2022 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts

• 2020 Artist in Residence Cambo Estate St Andrews UK

• 2018 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts

• 2016 Studios of Key West

• 2015 DAG 2nd place award, juror Alice Stites

• 2014 Vermont Studio Center

• 2014 Durham Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant

• 2013 Honorable Mention, Theatre Art Galleries, High Point NC

• 2009 Membership Winner, VAE: The Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh NC

• 2002 Professional Development Grant, awarded by South East Arts, Surrey UK

• 1996 The Cleveland Art Award, Cleveland OH

• 1995 Telecom Art Award, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand

• 2015 AARP portrait series for Portraits of Care Exhibition, Capitol Hill, DC

• 2012 Duke Divinity School, ‘The World is our Parish’ 14 parishioner portraits, Duke University’s Permanent Collection, Durham NC

• 2012 Wells Fargo and Scientific Properties, The NC Cow Parade, two commissioned fiberglass painted cow sculptures, Durham NC

• 2011 Duke Divinity School, commissioned glass painting, Duke University’s Permanent Collection, Durham NC

• 2005–2003 Portal Prints San Francisco CA

• 2022 New American Paintings #160

• 2022 Create Magazine #29

• 2021 Seattle Times Reviewhttps://zinccontemporary.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Seattle-Times-Review-RC-and-SDAF-8.20.21.pdf

• 2020 Artist and Illustrators Spring Issue

• 2019 My Modern Met https://mymodernmet.com/oil-paintings-rachel-campbell/

• 2019 The Jealous Curator blog https://www.thejealouscurator.com/blog/?s=rachel+campbell&x=0&y=0

• 2019 The Seattleite Magazine https://seattleite.com/2019/11/11/what-are-you-looking-for-by-rachel-campbell-a-new-exhibit-at-zinc-contemporary/

• 2013 http://www.aucourantmagazine.com/rachelcampbell.asp

• 2012 Duke Divinty School recorded interview on Commissioned Portrait series   

• 2010The Independent, Art Review, Durham NC

• 2009 Cover of The Deliverance of God, published Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI

• 2008 Cover of Carolina Planning, volume 33, published UNC (Chapel Hill)

• 2008 The Arts Review, Best of The Triangle 2008 (juried by Amy White), Durham NC

• 2007 Cover of Wild Things, Published Springfield, Australia

• 2007 The Independent, Art Review, May, Durham NC

• 2005 Cover of Stand Fast, Published Springfield, Australia

• 2005 Cover of The Quest for Paul’s Gospel, T&T Clark International, London UK

• 2003 Fine Art Prints, produced by Pauntley Press, London UK

• 2003 Cards and Calendar by Woodmansterne Publications, London UK

• City of Raleigh

• Duke University Divinity School

• University of Heidelberg

• Fidelity Investments

•  Fluid Cleaning, London

• Beautique, Reigate

• University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)

• Chelsea Gallery (London, UK)

• Duncan R. Miller Fine Arts (Hampstead & London, UK)

• Smith Gallery (Teddington, UK)

• Moray Gallery (Dunedin, NZ)

• Tyndall Galleries (Chapel Hill, NC)

• Craven Allen Gallery (Durham, NC)

• Frank Gallery (Chapel Hill, NC)

• Mahler Gallery (Raleigh, NC)

• Baxter Fine Arts (New Bern, NC)

• Zinc Contemporary (Seattle, WA)

• Clark Gallery (Lincoln, MA)