FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Annette Bezor
January 11 – February 17, 2007
Florence Lynch Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of recent works by Annette Bezor. The exhibition is on view from January 11 to February 17, 2007. An opening reception will be held at the gallery on Thursday, January 11, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
The exhibition will include a series of large paintings in which she continues her discourse with the portraits of women, historical and contemporary figures.
On Annette’s work Chris Reid writes as follows:
“Throughout her career, Annette Bezor has used images of women from contemporary culture to explore both our perceptions of women and women’s own nature. One of her most important devices in recent years has been the appropriation and transformation of well-known images from sources as diverse as classical painting, popular culture and pornography. By creating new ‘portraits’ from old images, she explores the objectification of women in art and in wider culture. The smooth, unblemished skin of the idealized faces of Bezor’s women mocks the superficiality and idealism characteristic of popular culture and advertising. In modifying and re-using images of women by past and present artists, she repositions these women, and thus women generally, in our society.
The central figure in Urban Turbans, for example, is drawn from the well-known 1950s images of Asian women by Vladimir Tretchikoff (1913-2006). The figure on the left in Urban Turbans is influenced by the work of Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980). The figure on the right is an adaptation that creates a new character. By contrast, the figure in Flower Fetish II is drawn from pornography. In appropriating and remodeling such diverse images of women, Bezor directly addresses contemporary sexual politics and constructions of gender, ethnicity and sexuality. She also considers the relationship between representational and decorative imagery – the ‘portrait’ is juxtaposed with flower patterns that suggest wallpaper to question the relative power of these forms in our visually saturated world. The repeated depiction of the turban shows how culturally identifying apparel can be adopted as a fashion item.
In Mirror Face, Bezor acknowledges the distance between our own view of ourselves and the view others have of us. The ‘mirror face’ is the expression we adopt when we look in a mirror, maybe when we are dressing for work or for an event, and which we tend to believe represents our true selves. But this face is not the only face that others see. The mirror face is emotionally neutral and unperturbed, but our actions away from the mirror reveal our emotional and psychological states. There is an implied interchangeability between the hibiscus flower and the persona- they carry a similar weight, which suggests that the face is a mask or that it is fragile and impermanent. The stylised figures in Bezor’s work invite us to stand in for them and experience their self-awareness. She even acknowledges the contingency of her own identity by rendering herself in the form of one of her own characters in her self portrait Still posing after all this time II.” (Excerpt)
Chris Reid, November 2006
The exhibition is made possible with the generous support of :
Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 to 6:00 p.m.. For further information and photographic material please contact Kari Pierce at 212-924-3290.