In Your Face by Helena Wurzel
8"x10" ($24) | 11"x14" ($60) | 16"x20" ($240) | 24"x30" ($1,200)
In Your Face—our fifth edition by the oh-so-talented (and dreamy to work with!) Helena Wurzel—offers up a fresh perspective, along with all the snap and sizzle of this artist's distinctive style.
Helena's bright palette and abstracted yet somehow hyperreal depictions can be enjoyed as the delicious pops of modern femininity that they are, but to stay on the surface is to miss out on her deft explorations of young women seeing the world and themselves.
Outward gazes which allude to complex inner examinations are a prevailing theme in Helena's work. Whether it's the in-your-face celebration of My Butt or the girl-in-her-room moments captured in Searching and Time, she's got a knack for depicting that familiar roil of how young women construct ideas of themselves by looking at the world. Or, to get super meta, by looking at how the world looks at them, or at least how they think it does.
The best part is that she conducts this inquiry in a way that never feels heavy or the least bit Mean Girls. You get the feeling that the women who populate Helena's world like themselves and each other. In fact, today's In Your Face positively shimmers with happiness.
So much beach, sun, sand and warmth are reflected through the mirrored lenses of its subject. Close your eyes and hear the crash of the waves, the cry of gulls and the chatter of a clutch of besties on a lazy summer afternoon. Feel the grains of sand in between your toes, smell the tang of suntan lotion and indulge in the pure joy of being in the world with each other. It's a memory that's been saved for savoring with the snap of the shutter, and reinterpreted by Helena's dense brush strokes, finely tuned edges and saturated palate.
Helena Wurzel isn’t the first painter to play with the complexity of reflections in her composition. Here, though, she subverts the traditional point of view and pushes viewers to think about our comfort/discomfort in our own skin, subtly reminding us that the being, the seeing, the being seen and the thinking about it are all worth celebrating.
With art for everyone,
Jen + team 20x200
