Art with animal instinct
- Published: 16/01/2012 at 03:20 AM
- Newspaper section: Life
La Lanta Fine Art presents Dichotomy, the Bangkok debut solo exhibition for Dallas-based painter Michele Mikesell who compares and contrasts human ideas with animal instinct and then comes up with paintings that depict stylised animal forms that recall cave-drawing imagery.
Her work consistently travels along a general vein of the universal human experience. By creating images of realistic faces then placing them loosely in animal shapes and costumes, the American artist forms visual metaphor. Irony, contradiction, humour and tragedy have been focal themes in her work and are illustrated not only within the image, but within the actual paint and surface of the painting.
Her process of wiping, scraping and sanding enables the apparent worn and built-up surface to be paradoxically buried within a pristine and untouched surface, resulting in a contrasting yet uniform aesthetic. Richly developed surfaces combined with beautifully composed images create a subtle balance of social commentary and humorous nostalgia.
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