Fine Art PR Publicity Announcements News and Information
Fine Art PR Publicity Announcements News and Information

Delia Brown: Women at The Baldwin Gallery

Los Angeles based artist Delia Brown has her 2nd show with the Baldwin Gallery entitled Women, which features 6 small oil paintings and 7 gouache drawings. Open 12 February – 8 March 2010. Though young, Ms. Brown has received considerable attention and subsequent press for her work, which – as in her previous Baldwin Gallery show, Guerilla Lounging: Aspen – often paints pictures of privilege and power, while simultaneously yet more discreetly illuminating the differences in class and inherent values that exist in the modern world. While her work commonly exposes opulent scenery, the artist is divulging an edgier estimation of her surroundings than at first meets the eye.

The title of her show, Women, refers to the iconic idea of Woman as a historical subject of the Arts, both personifying allegorical attributes (Virtue, Truth, Harmony, etc.), and as the object of the gaze. This dualistic perception of femininity – whereby Woman is represented as either the embodiment of piety, or conversely, the site of sexual desire – stands in contrast to the intimate-cocktail-parties-cum-guerrilla-games Brown and her friends engage in as they both inhabit and disrupt feminine clichés and personae.

Several of the scenes in Women depict Brown and her friends cavorting in private spaces they have gained access to play in. In other scenes, the women are disco dolls in a penthouse having what would appear to be a Pre-Party Before A Night at Studio 57. In the Freaky Frida series, the women have grown rather conspicuous facial hair and appear to be marrying each other here or running a brothel there. A more contemplative angle emerges in Reading in the Red Room 2, a moody revival of Brown’s 2003 project Forsaken Lover. In Sappho Mourns Her Lost Virginity, an ethereal blonde in white pumps and panties, with a head of hair so lush it can only be a wig, wistfully looks up at the sky. And in Felicity Begins to Lose It, a big-eyed young woman clings to a large and creepy totemic sculpture, appearing to be having an encounter with her own inner demons, despite the brightness of her surroundings.

The public is invited to meet the artist at the opening reception on February 12th from 6-8 pm.

Since 1994, the Baldwin Gallery has been presenting new work by established and emerging artists. It has earned an international reputation as an important venue for contemporary art, with a particular focus on American artists.

Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm, and Sunday from Noon to 5 pm.

The Baldwin Gallery is located at 209 South Galena Street in Aspen, Colorado.

www.baldwingallery.com

Image: Delia Brown Reading in the Red Room 2, 2009. Oil on board, 6 x 9 in.