Slaying is
Anna Ostoya’s third exhibition at the gallery. In her new paintings and
photomontages, the artist deploys Artemisia Gentileschi’s iconic work, Judith
Slaying Holofernes, as an image of violence inherent in art and in life.
The
original painting depicts the story of Judith, a Jewish widow who saves her
people besieged by the Assyrian army. With the help of her maidservant, she
plies Holofernes, the army general, with alcohol and then beheads him in his
drunken state.
In these
new paintings, Ostoya inspects the crime scene, analyzing it through
geometrical abstraction. She substitutes Judith for Holofernes, in Judith
Slaying Judith, and Holofernes for Judith, in Holofernes Slaying Holofernes.
Each gure attacks itself. These large canvases are accompanied by smaller ones
where the artist further analyzes the scene.
In Slain
Trances, a series of black and white photomontages, Ostoya’s investigation
becomes more associative than analytical. She transforms the original painting
through surrealist juxtapositions. Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes
collides with other examples of her work as well as with a painting by Georgia
O’Keeffe, a snapshot of Ostoya as a teenager, a still from Possession and an
image of a robot. Some photomontages are scraped and painted over, then
re-photographed to generate yet other photomontages.
Venue name:
Bortolami
Address:
520 W 20th St, New York , 1011
Cross
street: between Tenth and Eleventh Aves
Opening
hours: Tue–Sat 10am–6pm
Transport:
Subway: C, E to 23rd St
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