FEMININITY

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The Lorin Gallery is thrilled to present our second group exhibition this Spring:called “Femininity.” This show will run from May 7th to June 11th, 2022. The opening reception will take place on May 7th from 6 pm - 8 p.m in our Downtown gallery space.
Thirteen international gallery artists just as impressive and talented will be featured in the show: Emma Hapner, Larissa de Jesus Negrón, Florine Imo, Deb Koo, Elena Redmond, Heidi Ukkonen, Vincent Arnold, Kathryn Kampovsky, Lydia Cosford, Kelani Fatai Oladimeji, Ian Banja, Catherine Haggarty and Alayna Coverly.

The topic of this upcoming project surveys the concern of femininity in all its form. In these times, women rely on a newly found power to speak up and question the dictates imposed around their appearance. As a result, we believe that a modern group of artists will have a better approach to exposing women's bodies in contemporary art; and with more influence than previous masters.
Although in recent decades, many women created awareness of their condition and tried to build a place of expression and emancipation. As of today, women's bodies are still considered taboo and are at the center of debates. Through a selection of works, visitors will be invited to question the various staging of the female body in contemporary art: how these bodies are both subjects of the artwork, objects of desire, and embodiment of female emancipation. How does the artist of our time decide to represent these bodies? To what extent are contemporary artists renewing our view of femininity?

We wish to show how these representations oscillate between modernity and conventions, heritage and revival. About the Artist:
Vincent Arnold was born and raised in Sherbrooke, Canada, where he still lives and works. With qualifications in graphic design from University du Québec à Montréal, the artist demonstrates a penchant for figurative work where he creates characters eliciting uninten-tional self-portraits. The representation of the female body from a male perspective is often problematic, as it has been presented for thousands of years as an "object of desire. “This painting ironically highlights the objectifying of the female image through the "male gaze.” The viewer can see the reflection of a woman's figure through a “Peeping Tom” lens - the narrative's antagonist. Moreover, the casual posture of the woman and the broken lock reveals that she is being observed without her knowledge, without her permission.”

Florine Imo is an Austria-based artist currently working and finishing her final year at Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts. Florine’s paintings evolve around her figures, which she sees as part of herself and independent characters, experiencing all aspects of life; the good, bad, and ugly. The artist works on both canvas and paper, using mainly acrylics and oil colors. Imo’s paintings fluctuate between self-portraits, euphoric party scenes, playful depictions of distinct aspects of femininity, mysterious smiles, and idyllic picnics. Her work creates a universe where these complex characters grow, fight, play, and work together. Florine’s paintings speak in a language of intense colors while contrasting between surfaces and controlled chaos. “I like to reel the viewer in...bright colors, noisy patterns, at first seemingly perfect-looking figures, and often a paradise-like setting. These paintings often play with the viewers judgement of different aspects of femininity. I paint the female form as a whole, making my girls strong, yet carrying a known simultaneous sense of fragility. Often times, they let out an energetic “creepy smile,” but they couldn’t care less about what you think of them.”

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 Elena Redmond was raised in many different homes across the neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She recently graduated from Rhode Island School of Design. Using self-portraiture to explore themes of desire, privacy, and iterations of the body, Redmond develops layered compositions that reflect her exploration of the ‘self.’ These works act as extensions of herself, portraits of her anxieties, anger, habits, and body. The bodies are heavy and textured, swollen, and embodied. The nakedness of the body paired with an eye-locking, dominant gaze is used to vulgarize feelings of being seen, the painting catching the viewer in their voyeurism. In examining the ‘self’ and its iterations, I employ kitsch associations and humor to point at my uncertainties and looming discomforts. Wispy titles for each image complicate and split the narrative, idioms, and visual innuendos stitching the work tightly to the questions I ponder. “My work combines a wide span of mediums, focusing heavily on acrylic and oil paints, but incorporating traditional printmaking, alternative approaches, and self-taught techniques such as embroidery, knit, and weaving. Through paint and self-portraiture, I aim to reclaim paint as a woman’s work. Through this reclamation, I question the potential cultural worth and high-art value of repetitive, expressive, domestic tasks and the bodies that execute those tasks in the 21st century.”

Heidi Ukkonen’s paintings explore themes of the mundane such as relationships, anguish, and suffering. These depictions are represented through playfully deformed animations within the life of modern society. Ukkonen derives inspiration from her life living in the vibrant city of Antwerp where she has worked since graduating Royal Academy of Fine Arts with a BFA in painting (2014) and a MFA in painting (2015). Her thought process begins towards the end of each day and through trial and error, explosive, colourful and humorous works are brought about. Drawing knowledge and inspiration of the works of Philip Guston, Henri Matisse and Hieronymus Bosch she aims to bring her audience into a world where the usual becomes unusual, where the ugly becomes beautiful and where pain becomes humour. She uses a combination of egg tempera, acrylics and airbrush, adding a graphic dimension to her paintings.

Larissa De Jesús Negrón is a multidisciplinary artist who yearns for introspection and finds self-evaluation through her intimate and often otherworldly spaces and portraits. Her stylistically varied neo-surreal imagery is linked to the artist’s curiosity about the subconscious and Neuroticism. Larissa was born and raised in Puerto Rico. She lived in several municipalities such as Guaynabo, Trujillo Alto, and Caguas throughout twenty years. Her commitment to art-making began as early as she was nine years old when she excelled in the drawing classes her mother signed her up for. Larissa went on to study middle school and high school at Central High, the most well-regarded specialized art school in Puerto Rico. Graduating with the school's highest honor, Larissa continued her education at The School of Plastic Arts in Old San Juan, where she began majoring in Drawing and Painting. After two years, she transferred to Hunter College in NYC, where she got her BFA. “I have a profound interest in healing and addressing my childhood and adult trauma through my work. For all of us, the expression of emotion is essential to overcoming trauma. These mundane moments of despair, fear, and excitement are brought to the eyes of the viewer as a cathartic way to connect.”

Emma Hapner, originally from Indiana, received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ball State University. She is currently studying at the New York Academy of Art to receive her Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in painting. She works primarily in oil paint on canvas to create figurative works from a female perspective. She is reassessing classical painting through the lens of the contemporary female experience, focusing on the complexity of these women and self-expression through materialism. Her paintings focus on women and their experiences while appreciating beauty and femininity from a woman's viewpoint. “I want to explore the relationship between portraits of women and the viewer and break away from the voyeuristic idealism that has been used to depict women throughout history. By making images of women, want to show the viewer their complex identities, feelings, and experiences.”

Deborah Koo is an oil painter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was born in Seoul, Korea, and spent most of her life in Massachusetts. Her interest in art began during her years at Smith College, where she studied Studio Art. Afterward, she continued her studies at Ewha Woman's University in Seoul, where she received her Master’s in Fine Arts in Western Painting. Currently, Deborah Koo is a member of the Goodyear Arts Collective in Charlotte, NC, as well as an art professor at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. She has shown in local shows, including Goodyear Arts, LaCa Projects, Sozo Gallery, and The Mint Museum Randolph. Out-of-state and international shows include Wheeling Art Dealing for Miami Art Week in 2019 and the Open Call and Four Year Anniversary Shows at Delphian Gallery in London in2021. “I am influenced by what I see in my everyday life. Mundane events, media, human desire, motivation, apathy, and helplessness are just some of the interconnected reasons to paint. The banality of the images depicted, sometimes in bright, saturated colors and other times faded and pale, become surrogate self-portrait and memories and hopeful futures.”

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  Lyda Cosford was born in San Diego, California, and she came to New York City in 2018 to study Graphic Design at Pratt Institute. She was always interested in painting and devoted her free time to honing her skills as a painter and fine artist. She paints in oils and acrylic and recently experimented with different kinds of canvases, such as using cotton t-shirts. These materials allow her to incorporate visible seams and sewing aspects to her paintings, representing healing through repetitive meditation. “I made these pieces because something in my soul needed to take shape. My hand was taken over by a deeper, more profound and my body had to express what it was feeling. The culmination of this series of works focuses on the dynamics of interpersonal relationships strained by trauma, physical pain, and gender conformity. The work examines the gaze of the unseeing eye, the eye that gazes but cannot connect or see past the veil of gender roles and outward appearance.”

Kathryn Kampovsky is a young, self-taught artist based in Atlanta, USA. Her figurative paintings incorporate elements of text and drawings, which overlay and complement skilfully-rendered portraits of her subjects. The graphic additions act as a commentary, suggesting clues to deeper and broader readings of the characters depicted. Her paintings are a slow and steady representation of how she processes and unravel the world around her and herself as a person. Many of her work is born from an interest in human behavior. “My portraits are my way of untangling everything I see and experience, and I paint the way I live-steadily, watching and learning as I go. My portraits explore identity, belonging, and the roles of luck and chance in human life. I like to use symbols of luck and strategy in my work- such as playing a game of poker or rolling a pair of dice. I am drawn to the way that games like these provide a microscopic version of life itself- a set of rules that is either won or lost based on our unique combinations of luck, strategy, and occasionally, our ability to bluff.”

Ian Banja is a self-taught artist born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. Motivated by his love of learning and succeeding, he strives to be an outstanding and better version of himself. He is renowned for an upbeat street style that is paired with detailed, technical, and aesthetic considerations. Through his passion for performance, he discovered and embraced an interest in painting. He tries to express the everyday tussles and challenges he witnesses. His subjects are diverse, but he is repeatedly drawn to portraiture and the encounters his subjects find themselves in. “My style is a personal journey toward inner self. A great artist is not only the creation of the original Image but also the result of a significant technical and aesthetic consideration while making the final piece. Everything that surrounds and interests me is automatically processed and filtered into my pieces”.

With several exhibitions home and abroad showing his works, Kelani Fatai is an emerging Nigerian artist. He was born and bred in Mushin, a commercial area in Lagos, and, at the age of six, he discovered his passion for drawing and has since worked to create a niche for himself. He is currently a graduate with a Higher National Diploma in Painting. Kelani draws his inspiration and creativity from nature and the environment around him, and he doesn’t fail to interpret their meanings in his paintings. He is a versatile impressionist and realist and usually creates his art according to the story conjured in his mind. He is prolific in oil, acrylic, pastel, watercolor, and charcoal mediums. Some of his works have been collected in the United States and the United Kingdom. “My work revolves around the beauty of elegant, albeit simply-clad, black men and women. Through the insertion of unidentified flowers in my paintings, I highlight the message of love and togetherness. Thus, I express the world as I see it.”

Catherine Haggarty is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY, who recently had a solo exhibition at the Geary Contemporary, Bowery, NY. She is also co-director of NYC Crit Club, a space offering community, connection, and critiques for artists. Haggarty’s paintings and curatorial work have been reviewed by and featured in Bomb Magazine, Artnet, Hyperallergic, Two Coats of Paint, Brooklyn Magazine, The New York Times, and Young Space. Haggarty earned her M.F.A from Mason Gross, Rutgers University, in 2011. Currently, Haggarty is an adjunct professor at The School of Visual Arts (SVA) and also co- directs NYC Crit Club with artist and critic Hilary Doyle. As of today her work reflects and mirrors her life. The paintings refer to where she sleeps, walks, and dreams. Very specific forms and spaces inspire these paintings and drawings. Continuous line drawing, observational drawing, and memory drawing all seriously play roles in how she forms these paintings & drawings.

“These paintings often show me as a potential subject and figures from art history, literature, and my experience as an athlete. The paintings constantly react to the hand, its inadequacies, and the materials brought to the making. Specific light sources & multiple perspectives conflate to confuse space - this is intentional.”

Alayna Coverly is an artist working figuratively with oil paint while living in Brooklyn, NY. She has her BFA in Painting and Drawing, along with a Museum Studies certificate and a minor in Art History from Ohio University. She is now attending the New York Academy of Art where she will receive an MFA in Painting in 2023. She is currently producing work in her studio that focuses on our intimate relationships with loved ones while struggling with mental health, particularly women’s health issues. The subjects of her portraits are wrapped in soft drapes: that give a sense of mystery and veiled sacredness. The most elaborate textures and patterns create chromatic harmony and a certain visual variety.

This show will be open for visitors from May 7th to June 11th, 2022. Learn more about the Lorin Gallery https://www.loringallery.com
Lorin Gallery DTLA 807 S Los Angeles St, Los Angeles, CA 90014 United States I (213) 232 8676 I Contact@loringallery.com