2015 Catalogue Archive

Using images she finds on social media, New York artist Gina Beavers accentuates the absurd and artificial qualities of photographs by building her paintings into colorful, three-dimensional reliefs that takes cues from American folk art. In Dorado/Vermelho (Spanish for “Gold/Red”), the subject’s make-up highlights her neatly arched eyebrows, contoured and glittery eyeshadow, thick mascara, and precise lip line, all of which present a perfected image of glamour. This construction of beauty reads as a campy masquerade rather than an alluring symbol of femininity due to Beavers’ exaggerated surface and the bright colors of matte acrylic paint. Beavers builds each feature with an acrylic paste and palette knife, and uses the collage-like formatting of social media as solid barriers in this painting that segment and divide the face. Beavers’ paintings revel in the absurdity of self-presentation and the commodification of lived experience. The sense of humor in her work was noticed by New York Times critic Holland Cotter who stated, “Her political wit and willingness to be gross hold great promise.”