In This Skin explores feminine identity by reproducing found images of women. Kummerer pulled from historical paintings and current images all depicting idealized beauty and sexuality. By distorting the image using bright colors, large globs of paint and kitschy craft materials the work becomes a playful approach to the subject. Whether it is a historical European painting, pornography or an advertisement the women’s counter part is the male gaze thus reducing her to an object. The female image has often been characterized by the idea that a woman is available for the pleasure of the viewer; passive and aware of her part. In this work, the normally vulnerable subject takes the gaze back from the beholder by staring directly at the viewer. The paintings are not classically rendered, attempting to delineate perfection, but instead show a messy process that superimposes beauty and crudeness to depict the true exploration of the female self.
In This Skin is on display from April 18th - 20th with a Reception on Friday, April 19th from 6 - 9PM
Artist Bio:
Favoring playful colors and a build up of texture, Kendra’s process is proportionately important to the meaning. Through the pushing and pulling and squirting of paint a beauty coincides with disarray. With caked on paint and tacked on adornments her paintings take on a sculptural effect. Kendra skillfully combines fine art with a messy and unstructured technique.
Often featuring the female form Kendra is interested in sexuality and beauty in the context of art and voyeurism. She finds inspiration from artists like Marlene Dumas, Summer Wheat, Ghada Amer and Louise Bourgeois. These women painters depict the abstracted female form exploring female identity from a female point of view. Through each layer of paint Kendra ends up probing at her own identify leaving a piece of herself behind in each piece.
Kendra Kummerer (b. 1992 San Jose, Costa Rica) received a BA for painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Recent group shows include Pink, Sycamore Place Gallery, Atlanta (2016) and Just Look at It, Ferrari Fine Art, Atlanta (2015). Her work was sold at auction during An Affair of the Art, Atlanta (2017) and is a part of the Boca West Collection in Boca Raton, Florida (2016).
