Part performance artist, part philosopher, Gwenn Seemel is more than a painter of portraits, she is an explorer of life's greatest questions armed with acrylics on canvas. Seemel's work not only examines the lives of the people she paints but the ideas surrounding them. In her last show, the controversial "Mutually Beneficial," which opened in April 2006 at Concrete The Studio to rave reviews, Seemel spelunked into the dark caverns of online dating and the sublimation of modern male identity.
Now, in her newest collection, "Swollen" she is focuses on female identity and her lively philosophical approach and openness to fully delve into the questions of womanhood make her one of Portland's most interesting young artists.
Devoted entirely to seven women in different stages of womanhood (menses, marriage, motherhood, breast augmentation, sexual reassignment, menopause and end of life), the questions and answers Seemel poses may surprise you. "The reason I was interested in calling the collection 'Swollen' is because I have found that change happens in a moment usually--it seems instant but really there is this pressure that's been growing. A volcano erupts in a moment but that magma chamber has been filling for hundreds of years," says Seemel. Her volcanic metaphor is no accident, as she has paired each of these women and their rite of passage with a moment in the earth's life cycle exploring the question, "At what moment do you become a woman?"
Now, in her newest collection, "Swollen" she is focuses on female identity and her lively philosophical approach and openness to fully delve into the questions of womanhood make her one of Portland's most interesting young artists.
Devoted entirely to seven women in different stages of womanhood (menses, marriage, motherhood, breast augmentation, sexual reassignment, menopause and end of life), the questions and answers Seemel poses may surprise you. "The reason I was interested in calling the collection 'Swollen' is because I have found that change happens in a moment usually--it seems instant but really there is this pressure that's been growing. A volcano erupts in a moment but that magma chamber has been filling for hundreds of years," says Seemel. Her volcanic metaphor is no accident, as she has paired each of these women and their rite of passage with a moment in the earth's life cycle exploring the question, "At what moment do you become a woman?"
