JESSICA CARLISLE and DAVID KRUT PROJECTS
HESTER FINCH
The Portrait of a Lady
May 12 – June 13, 2015
526 West 26th Street #816 New York, NY 10001
David Krut Projects and Jessica Carlisle are delighted to present The Portrait of a Lady, an exhibition by Hester Finch.
The exhibition sees a continuation of the artist’s central themes - identity, personal freedom, and societal restraints on our actions and thoughts - but here from the female perspective. The works comprise a series of paintings of highly colored nudes. They sit, lie and stand in informal poses - only the head of each has been removed.
Despite the apparently violent act of decapitation, we don’t immediately recognize the nudes as headless. The insouciance of the models' poses jar with the shock of the headless body, and the flat planes of color mislead the eye.
The figures sit in what appear to be domestic settings, a physical space that amplifies the psychological, and blur the line between sanctuary and prison. The mundane is set against the macabre and the result is a pervasive sense of fear and unease. Drawing on her own personal anxieties, as well as from 24 hour news reporting of atrocities abroad and violations of women's online privacy, the artist brings together both the interior and exterior worlds in these forceful and arresting images