Review | Annie Malamet
Simultaneous abstraction and detail of the human form defined the BLONDE exhibition gallery opening at Studio 200 on June 27th. The exhibit showcased artists Beata Chrzanowaska, Ehren Austin Clodfelter, and Kelsey Shwetz, whose studio in Chelsea provided a space for the paintings. Each artist’s style is completely different, and yet each deals with the issue of the human body and how best to represent the nude through a combination of refined details and cubist-like abstraction.
Entering the space, I was immediately greeted by Shwetz’s large, colorful female nudes. Lara With a Book was done in one sitting as an exercise in exploring the human form. The vibrant blocks of color and the two-dimensional rendering of space recalls Expressionist works such as Matisse’s early nudes.
The most striking work is a self-portrait that depicts the artist crouched on the floor, her legs open revealing her genitals as she stares defiantly out at the viewer. One is reminded of Alice Neel’s female nudes, which challenge art historical norms both in the depiction of the non-normative female body and the defiant feminine gaze. “I see this as a confrontation,” said Shwetz “I’m confronting the viewer as they are forced to the confront my vagina.”
Indeed, all of Shwetz’s paintings on view paid homage to the tradition of western painting while concurrently challenging it. The languorous female nude in Splenders et Miseres recalls the vulnerable and erotic sleeping Venuses of the Renaissance, and yet the blue lips and ashen skin signal to the viewer that this beautiful woman is dead. “I was inspired by Tolstoy and Balzac,” says Shwetz of this painting “they talk about the beauty in death, the beauty of a woman when she expires.”
Next on view were Beata Chrzanowska’s colorful paintings. The bright colors and rendering of forms immediately reminded me of Kirchner, in particular his nudes. Like Kirchner, Chrzanowska uses color to narrow in on detail; when the quality of the paint becomes muddled and frantic, those are the areas to pay attention to.
“The audience needs space to rest,” said Chrzanowska “I want to take care of the viewer. Saying to them, I got you.” With these words I’m reminded of Matisse’s maxim that art should please the viewer, that the experience should be like settling into a comfortable armchair. Indeed, though Chrzanowska’s paintings are sexual and raw, there is something soothing and comfortable about them. “I call this color my happy blue,” Chrzanowska said gesturing to a warm cerulean. “I mix it myself and I keep a whole jar of it.”
Chrzanowska’s work is all about abstracting the human form while calling attention to the beauty in its simple details. Bodies disappear into the background as faces take shape, and blocks of bold color highlight meticulous renderings of human skin.
“I want my next series to be more sexual, more raw,” Chrzanowska told me. “Color and imagery, that’s an orgasm to me and I want to represent that.”
Ehren Austin Clodfelter’s palette was the most muted of the three painters. Warm neutral tones and faint lines peppered by sporadic blocks of loud color define the paintings that were on view. The tones are earthen and soft, and yet the build of paint on the canvas is frantic and random.
“That’s something I always struggle with,” said Clodfelter, “the tension between the color and the way I paint.” The work is all about tension, in fact. The nude bodies are ambiguously gendered, serene and yet they wear an expression of pain. “It’s all about change and growth. To me, that ambiguousness is more beautiful.”
In one work, Adaptation, a human form emerges from the undulating canvas. And yet it is barely recognizable as human: we see skin and soft curves, but no indication of gender or even what part of the body we are looking at. Abstraction of form is crucial to Clodfelter’s work. He seems to ask what defines the human body? What signals to the viewer that what we see is a body, what is male and what is female?
For those interested in different representations of the nude figure, keep an eye out for these emerging artists as they continue to exhibit.
For more information:
Ehrenclodfelter.tumblr.com
cargocollective.com/beatachrzanowska
kelseyshwetz.com/
