And This Is How It Ended?
(The Divorce Show)
About the Artists
In the works of Caitlin
Atkinson, she creates hypothetical situations that have been inspired by her personal experiences
of fear and failure. These "staged" scenarios resonate with people who actually have been through similar situations.
Not only can people relate with the images, but they conjure up memories of one's own experiences. It is quite a feat
when an artist can create work that touches the core of the audience, and that is exactly what Caitlin achieves.
Nathalie Daoust’s work entitled “Tokyo Hotel Story” explores Tokyo’s “Love-Hotels” phenomenon, which offers
thematic rooms to satisfy different sets of lovers. The subject matter is intimate, private and yet entices us to be
voyeurs into these ghastly, fantastical, ghostly and illusive pictorials that have accents of Art Nouveau and hints of
1970’s style Hollywood Movie Macabre. As in past works, Ms. Daoust unveils the secrets hidden under the apparent
stability of forms and tackles the topic with asserted child contempt for reality.
Katrina Erickson’s work is brilliant in color, precise and pristine in execution. She masters the medium and tackles it
with such a vivacious spirit that you are left to wonder if the work is less about the subject and more about the
application of the medium. Either way, you are drawn into the work and are mesmerized with each line, stroke or
motion of her body as seen in her performance art. Ms. Erickson’s rich background an exposure to various cultures
also gives her a unique perspective on the topic.
The collages of Kathy Mas-Gallegos have a certain playfulness and wit to them. Though many of these images are
about the heartache and hardships of life, Ms. Mas-Gallegos has been able to look back on these past scenarios with
humor and laughter. For example, "Girl in the Cactus" is an image of a woman in a bed of cacti because she has been
dumped. At first glance its title and image seem very playful, while the actual situation it refers to was most likely very
painful and perhaps tragic. Thus, Ms. Mas-Gallegos' pieces become a sort of therapy as they cause the viewer to recall
his/her own pain and reinterpret it in a more humorous light.
Zara Kriegstein’s work is unapologetic and in your face. She embraces and reflects the harsh realities of life, yet the
work itself holds almost an oxymoron of nuances because she paints with such softness, and uses a palette that seems
more fit for a landscape than a tragic story or lover’s game of cat and mouse.
Leora Lutz , transforms simple daily urban landscapes into bold, vibrant and emotional journeys on canvas. She creates
a harmonious fusion of Gerhard Richter, Hudson River School (1860) and urban photography. Each piece lures the viewer
with its eye candy color palette and titillating composition and is tied together with a copasetic title that can be perceived
as random segments out of Ms. Lutz’s diary.
These pages, or canvases, are about past nostalgic memories and
emotions that remind the viewer that time is fleeting and the landscape
(figuratively and metaphorically) is vast and timeless, especially when
those moments are no more.
Amitis Motevalli’s work is provocative and enticing both because of its Middle Eastern content and its sexual tension
that both counters and adheres to humanity, whether that of a Middle Easterner or an American. She creates works
that examine the voyeuristic gaze of identity and “exotification”.
Olga Seem, a
veteran in the art world, at age 80, explores forms from nature, flowers,
and plants at their various stages. The execution of these works is
very precise and elegant, and at first glance, may appear to be simple
still-life paintings. On the contrary, one may perceive these
paintings as suggesting sexuality and the youthfulness one can have in
life and art. At the conclusion of her marriage, Ms. Seem's life
seemed to blossom like the flowers she paints.