NATASHA WRIGHT

Natasha Wright 2024 Solo Exhibition

Opening night 20th February |   Exhibition ends 5th March

.M Contemporary is pleased to announce a new series of paintings by New Zealand born, New York-based artist Natasha Wright.

The past year has been a time of great transition in the studio for Wright. “Briefly Gorgeous” is a series of darker, more complex paintings which explore the significance of the female body as icon.

Drawing on references from advertising, fashion, and art history, Wright explores the representation of females throughout history. The work is motivated by the dichotomy between vulnerability and power, seduction and aggression. The paintings create a sense of tension, a push and pull, a feeling of living in the in-between.

Wright often addresses the psychological elements of a character and a range of human emotions. She is interested in the interior just as much as the exterior – how it feels to inhabit a body. Her women balance a complicated dichotomy of the grotesque and the beautiful.

Forms emerge from a dark ground. Paintings are built up in layers with flat brushes which are used to apply broad swaths of thick oil paint. Wright’s paintings are as bold as they are introspective, concerned with contemporary characters just as much as art history.