Cindy Wright

ARTIST: Cindy Wright

BORN: 11/29/72 Herentals, Belgium

RESIDENCE: Antwerp, Belgium

EDUCATION: 1992-6: Royal Academy for Fine Arts Antwerp, Master in the Visual Arts, Painting

2005-6: Post graduate, laureate at the Higher institute for Fine Arts Antwerp

MAJOR SHOWS/GALLERIES/COMMISSIONS:

http://www.cindywright.org/biograph.html

MEDIA & TECHNIQUES: Oil paint. Works from photographs.

CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION: Wright paints large-scale, luridly realistic, almost photographic portraits and still lifes which force her viewer to scrutinize the often unconsidered, but important details of people and objects; investigating skin, fat, ripples in fabric or internal organs. In order for her images to remain recognizable, viewers must stand at a distance, but upon coming closer and inspecting the canvas, the abstract brush strokes which make up the image are revealed. Despite the painterly presence of her work, Wright's use of photographs as a reference, strips her work of any tenderness, expressing a sterile quality, one that is more of clinical observation. The photorealism of Cindy Wright's large-scale portraits and still life paintings can often (perhaps ironically) bleed into abstraction. From a distance, her monumental paintings display snapshot characteristics, like cropped composition and intense single source lighting. However, upon closer inspection, the range of mark making and painterly application becomes astoundingly apparent. The paintings become a perceptual conundrum as an easily recognizable object dissolves into nonrepresentational shapes and brush strokes. Similarly, Wright’s juxtaposition of alluring mimesis and the subtly grotesque alludes to the intricate relationship woven between life and death, latent and manifest. They are conceptually rooted within an artistic tradition that forces the viewer to question the nature of how we read and understand the world, and they yet remain entirely contemporary in their technique. Her subjects are taken from her immediate milieu and are transformed into iconic meditations on our own mortality.

SUBJECT MATTER/THEMES/CONCEPTS DEALT WITH: Organic, visceral imagery...ambiguous, familiar, ephemeral, alluring and grotesque all at the same time.

LINKS FOR FURTHER STUDY:

http://www.ronmandos.nl/artist/biography/27/cindy_wright

http://artweek.la/issue/may-16-2011/article/cindy-wright-new-work

http://www.diplomatie.be/losangeles/media/losangeles/Cindy%20Wright.pdf

researched by Janet Weyenberg