Natasha Michaels | Penitent woman (small)
Monotype
Image size: 29 x 21 cm
Paper size: 29 x 21 cm
Unique
£790 unframed or £79 per month via Own Art. Contact rebecca@woolwichprintfair.com to request an application or more information.
In this piece (a reimagining of Mary Magdalen) the close crop pulls us into the frame, creating a claustrophobic intimacy, as if we are intruding on something private, something unresolved. Mary Magdalene’s tears are usually pious, a sign of repentance or transcendence. Here, they feel uncomfortable. Her gaze, inward and uncertain, is a departure from the usual upward rapture or downward shame. It’s a sideways glance, a moment of questioning, a woman not quite fitting into the role assigned to her. The tight framing makes it all the more performative, like a beauty queen or celebrity caught in the wrong moment, aware of the grief she’s supposed to perform but not fully buying it.
The origins of Natasha Michaels recent monoprints lie in historical paintings from the renaissance to the 19th century. Exploring and reinterpreting traditional conventions and genres, Michaels’ work is an investigation of her own ambivalence towards the originals. At once subverting and celebrating, she uses her own expressive language to recast and redirect the sitters, reimagining them as fictional characters .
Playfully undermining the originals with a simple cartoonish change of their features, the figures appear interrupted from their original purpose, They are often lost in thought , self-conscious or uneasy; as if the original painter has stopped painting for a moment and they have been caught in a moment of uncomfortable introspection.The subjects can appear anxious or perplexed as Michaels plays with ideas of power , gender and artifice. directing the viewer to consider their status.
Michaels process adds to this unstable mutant world. Beginning with the reversal of the original image. Gestural brushstrokes, slips and smears combined with the sharp boundaries of the cut alluminium plates reveal strange chimeras on the paper . Unsettlingly recognisable yet unfamiliar , they hover between high art and pop culture. Michaels makes multiple versions of each print as if engaged in a conversation with the original sitters and the emerging versions of themselves.
Monotype
Image size: 29 x 21 cm
Paper size: 29 x 21 cm
Unique
£790 unframed or £79 per month via Own Art. Contact rebecca@woolwichprintfair.com to request an application or more information.
In this piece (a reimagining of Mary Magdalen) the close crop pulls us into the frame, creating a claustrophobic intimacy, as if we are intruding on something private, something unresolved. Mary Magdalene’s tears are usually pious, a sign of repentance or transcendence. Here, they feel uncomfortable. Her gaze, inward and uncertain, is a departure from the usual upward rapture or downward shame. It’s a sideways glance, a moment of questioning, a woman not quite fitting into the role assigned to her. The tight framing makes it all the more performative, like a beauty queen or celebrity caught in the wrong moment, aware of the grief she’s supposed to perform but not fully buying it.
The origins of Natasha Michaels recent monoprints lie in historical paintings from the renaissance to the 19th century. Exploring and reinterpreting traditional conventions and genres, Michaels’ work is an investigation of her own ambivalence towards the originals. At once subverting and celebrating, she uses her own expressive language to recast and redirect the sitters, reimagining them as fictional characters .
Playfully undermining the originals with a simple cartoonish change of their features, the figures appear interrupted from their original purpose, They are often lost in thought , self-conscious or uneasy; as if the original painter has stopped painting for a moment and they have been caught in a moment of uncomfortable introspection.The subjects can appear anxious or perplexed as Michaels plays with ideas of power , gender and artifice. directing the viewer to consider their status.
Michaels process adds to this unstable mutant world. Beginning with the reversal of the original image. Gestural brushstrokes, slips and smears combined with the sharp boundaries of the cut alluminium plates reveal strange chimeras on the paper . Unsettlingly recognisable yet unfamiliar , they hover between high art and pop culture. Michaels makes multiple versions of each print as if engaged in a conversation with the original sitters and the emerging versions of themselves.
Monotype
Image size: 29 x 21 cm
Paper size: 29 x 21 cm
Unique
£790 unframed or £79 per month via Own Art. Contact rebecca@woolwichprintfair.com to request an application or more information.
In this piece (a reimagining of Mary Magdalen) the close crop pulls us into the frame, creating a claustrophobic intimacy, as if we are intruding on something private, something unresolved. Mary Magdalene’s tears are usually pious, a sign of repentance or transcendence. Here, they feel uncomfortable. Her gaze, inward and uncertain, is a departure from the usual upward rapture or downward shame. It’s a sideways glance, a moment of questioning, a woman not quite fitting into the role assigned to her. The tight framing makes it all the more performative, like a beauty queen or celebrity caught in the wrong moment, aware of the grief she’s supposed to perform but not fully buying it.
The origins of Natasha Michaels recent monoprints lie in historical paintings from the renaissance to the 19th century. Exploring and reinterpreting traditional conventions and genres, Michaels’ work is an investigation of her own ambivalence towards the originals. At once subverting and celebrating, she uses her own expressive language to recast and redirect the sitters, reimagining them as fictional characters .
Playfully undermining the originals with a simple cartoonish change of their features, the figures appear interrupted from their original purpose, They are often lost in thought , self-conscious or uneasy; as if the original painter has stopped painting for a moment and they have been caught in a moment of uncomfortable introspection.The subjects can appear anxious or perplexed as Michaels plays with ideas of power , gender and artifice. directing the viewer to consider their status.
Michaels process adds to this unstable mutant world. Beginning with the reversal of the original image. Gestural brushstrokes, slips and smears combined with the sharp boundaries of the cut alluminium plates reveal strange chimeras on the paper . Unsettlingly recognisable yet unfamiliar , they hover between high art and pop culture. Michaels makes multiple versions of each print as if engaged in a conversation with the original sitters and the emerging versions of themselves.
