Sophie Knee

It might be impossible, in the 21st Century, to perceive the World except through a photographic filter.  To be visually literate in this time, one must be conscious of photography in both traditional and digital terms.  The artist, in this world, uses photographic processes in at least three (probably more) different ways.  Vision has to do with what we see; perception is about how we think about what we see.

The current body of work consists of paintings and prints, with photographic reference.  While the prints don't necessarily look like the paintings, they are connected by shared themes; some of these are perception, authorship (ownership), and taste (beauty).  Everyday life is a constant and continuing source of inspiration and wonder, and these things that I find so amazing can be shared most easily with others as paintings, prints or drawings; it is easier sometimes to present an image than to use words.  In considering this current body of work, I must acknowledge the influences of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edouard Manet, Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Chuck Close, to some extent, Pop Art and Photorealism.

The oil paintings, at first glance, seem like fairly traditional portraits, but they are all based on selfies created by my friends.  By using selfies, the expected artist: model: viewer relationship is disrupted, and authorship called into question, or blurred.  The silkscreen prints, produced in very small editions, constitute an ongoing experiment in four color separation printing.  Physically, they are reminiscent of images in the late Twentieth Century comics and magazines that many in my generation will remember from childhood, only with nicer paper and richer color combinations.  If you remember that era of pull-out centerfolds, perhaps you also remember that the things depicted were usually unattainable things that one was supposed to “like”: movie stars, singers, women you couldn't have, or would never resemble.  In prints and paintings alike, you are invited to see the beauty in things you've been told are “no good” as fine art subjects:  house cats and selfies.  While the overall size of these works is relatively small, it matters that the subject matter is presented about life-sized, or slightly larger; you are deliberately “drawn close” at human scale, into juicy color relationships and luscious surfaces.  These are works for the walls of human living spaces, to decorate and please, also to question what we think we know about what is desirable, possible, beautiful.