Gilt By Association
November 17th~ January 15th, 2019
Artists:
Victoria Selbach is a contemporary New York painter best known for her powerful life-size nude depictions of women. Selbach’s gaze is directed through a deep connection to the women who share their complex identity in her work. The secret of this new series is that the overall prettiness belies the covert intent. The work can be interpreted differently depending on the viewer’s perspective and how deep they dig. ~
“There is a definite sense of femininity in her work yet the way Victoria combines detailed and symbolic collage work makes the audience wonder how pure her paintings truly are.” ~ nicole gordon for Beautiful Bizarre Magazine
Ellen Greene is a Chicago artist who paints on vintage women’s leather gloves and collars.
“My recent work has focused on vintage women’s gloves painted with reworked traditional western tattoo motifs and the visual tension between these two symbols. The gloves are symbols of a historical set of “ladylike” behavior that included modesty, purity and submissive attitudes. The tattoos in contrast speak a language of masculine behaviors. Traditional western tattoo narrative developed through sailor, and later, biker culture. These heroic and deviant imagery narratives leave out any authentic feminine expression. I seek to rework these traditional motifs to find a voice for my personal experiences as a heavily tattooed woman in the traditional role of wife and mother. I use vintage objects, photography and painting to purge emotional static from daily living. I am in a constant conversation through objects with my body, my world, pop culture, gender politics and caregiving.” ~ EG
Rose Freymuth-Frazier is a sought after and highly respected oil painter living and working in NYC.
“My work deals with issues of “hot pink” and “perfection”. Gender roles, sexuality and societal conditioning have all found their way into my paintings. Early training in theatre, where I studied Shakespeare and Greek Drama, gave me a template for a stylized and theatrical exploration of the human condition, which in my case is done from an American woman’s perspective, through paint.
I paint in oil because of its superior ability to represent flesh and blood. Through painstaking application my leading ladies, theatrically lit and often engaged in some sort of mini-drama, are brought to life. They tell a story that the viewer may recognize, or depict a point of view that may be new to them. Whatever the case, I intend to hold up a mirror in which the viewer finds relevance to their own experience, but I hope not to send them screaming into the river.
I’ve come to accept my obsession with detail and pursuit of unattainable perfection in my work, and I have to admit the words “hot pink” still give me a thrill.” ~ R.F.F.
Elizabeth Waggett
Eminently modern and free spirited Elizabeth’s artwork focuses on the confusion of today’s modern society. She challenges the viewer to confront the relationship between humanity’s preconceived notions of value and worth, in our consumable world. The Gold Standard, which has been used for centuries, is a perfect representation of humanity’s obsession with vain and valueless beauty.
Using time honored skills in a contemporary way, Elizabeth brings a modern twist to traditional forms through her work. Her social commentary, seeks to illuminate the arbitrary value we place on useless and culturally devoid items, while simultaneously devaluing those things with innate value. She pokes fun at mans obsessive quest to to obtain more and more while we are living, ignoring the purpose of our lives. From this Elizabeth questions the arbitrary prioritization of Earth’s most precious assets, questioning the relationships, behaviors and patterns of humanity. Many of us remain divorced of direct responsibility for the destruction of our planet’s invaluable resources, often taking the word of the media, politicians, religious leaders and CEOs at face value.
Using the subject of animal, human skulls and personal artifacts, Elizabeth exposes the responsibility of the individual in owning the effects of their decisions. Adorning each piece with gold leaf and precious metal, the dichotomy of the monochromatic pallet against the gold is a visual representation of the struggle of the inner self to balance greed and purpose.
She draws inspiration from her international background with her work being dominated by the discordant relationship between true value and worth. Having lived all over the world in some of the most diverse and contrasting cities, she is fascinated by the stark comparison of perceived success, and draws on this international experience to narrate her work.
The monochromatic pallet simplifies the form allowing a deeper exploration of the subject matter. This causes the viewer to focus first on a photographic representation, before a closer inspection reveals the true technique. This fine art technique takes hours of intense concentration before a final gilding of 24 karat gold leaf is applied. True to this fine art tradition, she only uses the highest quality materials, responsibly sourced, such as certified Saunders Waterford archival cotton paper and ethically sourced 24 karat gold.
Liz Tran
Channeling subjects such as dream imagery, imagined landscapes, geodes, outer space and The Big Bang, Tran explores the shapes of nature, with the infusion of fantastical, pulsing synthetic hues. The psychedelic visuals are harvested from the place where inner-verse meets outer-verse, where optical misfires combine with a vacuum pull moving at the speed of light. Through painting, sculpture and installation, she creates atmospheres that aim to activate.
Public collections of Tran’s work include the City of Seattle’s Portable Works Collection, Capital One, Vulcan Inc., Baer Art Center, Camac Art Centre, The El Paso Children’s Hospital, Harborview Medical Center, The King County Public Art Collection and The Child Center. Tran has completed multiple special projects and installations, including work for VH1Save the Music Foundation, The Seattle Art Museum, The Brain Project Toronto, Public Art at The Aqua Art Fair Miami and Vulcan Inc.
Brett Marcel
From a young age Brett Marcel (b: 1986) underwent formal art training via private instruction. As a Catholic school student in his youth he was heavily influenced by iconic religious art, and later by the abstract geometric motifs seen in Buddhist and Alchemical mandalas. Marcel received his BFA and MFA from the New Hampshire Institute of Art (NH).
“My work draws upon visual parallels between world religions and world currency. I immerse subjects in kaleidoscopic fields of intricate networks of design, symbols, and textual devices. Pop and religious references become embedded within the systems of interlacing design—alluding to subliminal transformative desires that permeate our surroundings. Through our ideas, acts, and deeds we become our own form of currency to exchange amidst others. My work serves as an invitation for people to develop their own modes of visualization and realize their own value in engaging the world in an optimistic and transformative way.” ~ B. M.
Van Wifvat & Kelly Bugden
The collaboration of these artists grew out of years of shaping materials into one-of-a-kind objects. Intuitively, the process of creating with their hands took an inward turn. Prism is an travelogue through memories and dreams, yielding abstract forms that capture moments of transformation
Nature, childhood memories, and everyday archetypes take shape in unexpected combinations of materials. The works emerged as the haptic and visual senses channeled the ritualistic power of selected artifacts. The resulting objects exist in a space between what they were originally and what they could become. A wheel, for example, is distorted as if seen through a prism, and crystals in this universe vibrate outside the realm of time.
Ellen Stagg has been a photographer since she was 16 years old. She moved to New York City in 1996 from Connecticut to attend the School of Visual Arts where she received her BFA in Photography. She signed with her first photography agent at the end of her junior year of college. In over a decade of her career as a professional photographer she has worked in advertising, fashion, and portraiture, shooting for various magazines, look books, stock photography, and celebrities.
Though Stagg found success in the world of commercial photography, her true passion was to be considered fine artist. After years of struggling to connect with models who would understand her vision, Stagg met Justine Joli in 2005; the award winning adult actress quickly became Stagg’s muse. Through Joli, Stagg was able to connect to other women from the adult industry. Stagg found it easy to create nude art with these “pros;” feeling inspired, she dusted off one of her old film cameras and some left over negative film and began working on multiple exposure images.
This current body of work blends Stagg’s love of nature with her love of the female nude form. Shooting with a Holga 120 film camera, Stagg photographs her models, making multiple exposures on the film. This process is repeated with elements of nature, as Stagg shoots images flowers. The multiple exposure images are flipped, creating kaleidoscoping images that mirror each other like a Rorschach test. And showing nude polaroids, that are one of a kind.
Darla Teagarden
In the early 1990s, Darla began as stylist and Make-up artist in San Francisco and Île-de-France. Eventually, she became a historical cabaret dancer for the Goethe Institute of San Francisco portraying notorious German characters both real and Imagined. These series of productions were choreographed by Martha Graham protégé and U.C. Berkley professor, Marni Wood, and directed by Voluptuous Panic author, Mel Gordan- Starring German singer, Nina Hagen and other German celebrities. Through the years she was production designer, vintage clothing buyer and occasional ‘alternative’ model.
In March 2007, she applied her trade skills and interests to photography in Austin , Texas where she currently resides.
Darla makes her portraits ( primarily self portraits, unless otherwise stated) by crafting small theatrical vignettes out of wood, paper, chalk , plaster and projection, creating in camera effects. These serve abstractly as her as means for communication, protection, ritual and a sense of place. Her images are either faceless or in character. She uses symbolic gestures as the narrative communicates common experience and unity.
Beau Stanton
A multi-disciplinary artist, Stanton’s work takes the form of paintings, murals, large scale installations, stained glass, mosaics, and multimedia animations. Focusing on meticulous technique and craft, Stanton’s work is heavily informed by historic ornamentation, religious iconography, and classical painting. A keen interest in iconic visual symbols and Jungian archetypes often provides the foundation for his images.
Stanton is originally from California where he studied Illustration at Laguna College of Art and Design. After receiving his BFA in 2008 , he relocated to New York where continues to live and work in Red Hook, Brooklyn. His work has can be seen on walls and in galleries worldwide.
Michela Martello works are humanistic, accessible, and consistently characterized by her use of symbolism. A perpetually curious and interdisciplinary artist, she brings together the traditional and contemporary influences of a variety of techniques, media, themes, and cultures to create art that achieves a universal language of aesthetics that merges centuries and crosses cultural bounds. Pen&Brush – 2017 – ” Future is Goddess ”
Born in Grosseto, Italy. Studied illustration at the IED, Europe Institute of Design after which she published works in over 30 books. In 1993 she shifted her focus to painting. In 1998 she moved permanently to New York where she started her research as artist painter full time.
Chris Guest is a painter, living and working in London, UK.
“The way I paint is quite classic in style and technique, similar to 18th century painting, but a modern subject matter, painting tattooed people. Obviously my work is quite realist, but you only need to get within a metre of it to see its quite brushy up close! “ Other than studying illustration at uni, I’m an avid reader of art technique books, plus I do a lot of life drawing (although this isn’t painting, it does help you see things properly). With painting, you just have to practice like mad, that’s the only way to get any good – nobody picks up a paint brush for the first time and paints the Mona Lisa – you have to put the time in to develop your skills. When I first picked up oils, my paintings were awful! I also think it’s very important to constantly learn from your mistakes, I always try to think of ways that I could’ve made my work better.” ~ C.G>
Jennifer Gennari is a classically trained figurative artist. She graduated in 2005 from Ringling College of Art and Deign and in 2008 left for Italy to study at the Florence Academy of Art where she spent three years abroad studying classical realism under Daniel Graves.
Jennifer returned to New York in 2011 and started working as a painting assistant to Jeff Koons. She eventually left to pursue teaching at the National Academy Museum and School, the Long Island Academy of Fine Art, and instructs students privately from her studio in Greenpoint Brooklyn.
Jennifer has written a book on drawing the human figure, and has also hosted an online class through Craftsy that instructs beginners on the techniques used in creating traditional portraits.