Lani Emanuel: Beside Herself

From the KPBS weekend arts preview:
Gesture, fashion and emotion were the first things I noticed in Lani Emanuel's exhibition at Oceanside Museum of Art. "Beside Herself" is a series of large figurative paintings that chronicle the formative years of a girl's life, and the swings from joy to grief to annoyance to awkwardness is so palpable. Emanuel paints with a minimal backdrop, so the focus is on the light and movement in the image.
—Julia Dixon Evans, KPBS

From the artist:
"Beside Herself is a journey of personal exploration concerning a difficult childhood and adolescence. My paintings are all in some way autobiographical, but additionally, they embody comparisons between my personal and contemporary young women’s issues concerning identity development, emotionality, connection and communication, introspection, family dynamics, and female relationships. They address these issues through the specifics of contemporary young women’s body language, gestures, gaze, interaction, and clothing choices. My series of shoe paintings represent the playful style choices of young women. I portray these young women as individuals and place them in minimalistic interior environments or exterior non-environments. I show a specific quality and direction of light to emphasize the mood of each painting.

My figurative paintings are painted in oil on canvas or linen and are primarily created using the Zorn limited palette. I occasionally include an object or signifier such as an orange power cord, partially opened double doors, a tin foil star wand, or chandelier print wallpaper to invite an open-ended interpretation for the viewer. I depict the young women in my figurative paintings life-sized in the hopes that they will command attention, versus being easily ignored."

–Lani Emanuel

Learn more about the exhibition here.

Related events:
Exhibition celebration, Oct. 29, 2022

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