JOYCE POLANCE

JOYCE POLANCE /// STATEMENT

Using myself, friends and family as the subjects, I explore intimate themes with my art. My canvases are large - often seven feet tall, and the figures are usually nude. My current series of paintings is about women's personal transformations and healing. I depict subjects who are in various states of emergence from patterns that have had a negative impact on their lives. My intent is to convey them breaking out of limitations and embracing awareness, strength and freedom. In the most recent pieces, I also explore the complexities that ensue as women engage in relationships that speak to both their biological and (newly) created families. By exploring a range of dynamics - sexual tension, jealousy, sadness, anger, tenderness - my art suggests that even in a transformed world, life is messy.

Both the large size of the women and the thick, layered application of paint are meant to create an arresting visual presence echoing the internal strength of the figures. I paint the women naked to suggest their willingness to change and be vulnerable, while simultaneously embracing their sexuality and bodies. The women take ownership of both their femininity and their power. My objective is to challenge the viewers to question their own assumptions about strength and beauty.

JOYCE POLANCE
Education
1984-88 Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY, Bachelor of Fine Arts degree
1982-84 Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT

☁ JOYCE POLANCE

FRANCESCA WOODMAN

FRANCESCA WOODMAN (April 3, 1958 - January 19, 1981) was an American photographer best known for her black and white pictures featuring herself and female models. She spent the most part of her childhood in Italy in the Florentine countryside, where she lived in an old farm with her parents, who were also artists. The charm of the old house had a notable influence on Francesca’s research; the high-ceilinged rooms, the crumbling walls, the old decorations are all felt to be surfaces like ‘skins’ in which to cover oneself. Many of her photographs show young nude women, blurred by camera movement and long exposure times, merging with their surroundings, or with their faces obscured. Her work continues to be the subject of much attention, years after she committed suicide at the age of 22.


☁ FRANCESCA WOODMAN
☁ FRANCESCA WOODMAN @ EROS ET VANITÉS

PHILIP BARLOW

Oil on canvas

PHILIP BARLOW
Born in 1968, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa


☁ PHILIP BARLOW

WOLFGANG SUSCHITZKY

WOLFGANG SUSCHITZKY (born 29 August 1912 in Vienna, Austria) is a cinematographer and photographer.

WOLFGANG SUSCHITZKY has created a legacy of socially engaged photography and film work known for its integrity and compassion: he has worked on over a hundred documentary, feature and commercial films. His photographs are held in collections worldwide. In London alone galleries including the Photographers’ Gallery represent him. In 2002 a major retrospective of his work was held at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh and most recently in Vienna.


☁ WOLFGANG SUSCHITZKY
☁ WOLFGANG SUSCHITZKY IN THE GUARDIAN

JONATHON KAMBOURIS

JONATHON KAMBOURIS /// THE LAST MEAL PROJECT

Every prisoner waiting to be executed is granted a last meal. Prisoners waiting to die choose their last meal for different reasons. Some choose from past memories, while others feast on what they crave at the moment. Such fascinating details surrounding the final hours before being put to death are a matter of public record and are the inspiration for this series of photographs. Justice may not always be served because the innocent can be proved guilty and the guilty can be proved innocent. Choosing the last meal is a significant ritual because the accuracy and validity of this choice is the only answer one can ultimately accept. This series visually documents the face and last meal of a convicted killer and is without question, honest and true. This will be an on going project as executions continue to take place in the United States. The core of the issue lies not on the emotionally loaded (for or against) arguments, but to question, how is society really served by the death penalty?


☁ JONATHON KAMBOURIS
☁ JONATHON KAMBOURIS /// THE LAST MEAL PROJECT