by Art Fag City on June 30, 2008
Elsie Kagan, Rough Winds Do Shake the Darling Buds of May, 2008, 72 x 96 inches, acrylic and oil on canvas
Elsie Kagan, Statement
Elsie Kagan's paintings take Baroque imagery and architecture as reference points, pairing the familiar iconography of that period (celestial realms, elaborate framing devices and decoration, figures in states of extremity) with iconic tropes of abstract expressionism (the performed, bodily ‘gesture’, the drip). Figurative and illusionistic elements are constituted–and consumed–by marks and painted elements that lie on the canvas surface. The opposition of these languages is part of an inquiry into themes of authenticity, corporal experience, and control.
Originally from Berkeley, CA, Elsie now lives and works in Brooklyn.
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