BE THERE
revivifyPresented by Claire Oliver April 20, 2007- May 12, 2007Reception: April 19, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pmCatherine Howere·viv·i·fy - To impart renewed energy and strength; A renascence; A reawakening; To arouse from a state of inactivity or quiescence; The supernatural power or powers that control destiny Transitive verb: Etymology: from Old French, to come back to life. An apt title for Catherine Howe's exhibition of new paintings, the word simultaneously acknowledges the Artist's past work while portending a new freedom of the brush, confidence in color and a promise of flesh reborn as pure paint. Paint is both the subject and the object in this exhibition; beautiful active brushwork and luscious dripping color pay homage to and contextualize Howe's previous penchant for appropriating expressionist masters of the past. Having emerged in the 1990's as one of a small group of determined artists bent on revitalizing the figure in painting, Howe's work continues to use a version of portraiture to address issues of power and expression. In his Art in America article on Currin, Yukavage and Howe, Barry Schwabsky wrote of the crucial aspect of empathy in Howe's post-feminist, provocative portraits: "For Currin and Yuskavage, the power of the picture lies in its impersonality, but Howe begs to differ." This figure-empathy and bravura continue intact yet the artist has pushed further and perhaps reinvented herself in these new paintings. The viewer is reminded of the fantastical yet reality based flesh of Odeon Redon; Howe's figures leave the viewer unsure of their mortal condition. Both real and ethereal, there is a suggestion of otherworldliness in these beings' human condition: a transient state between agony and ecstasy evocative of Francis Bacon's visual journey. Says Howe of her new direction: "We live in a time where it is expected that an artist is a construer and a thinker. Post Modernist thought creates an artist that is responsible for embodying the larger legacy of what art is. I am working now with female figures that are newly unbound by the burden of self consciousness."
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