CORRI-LYNN TETZ: QUIET TIME

Anat Ebgi is pleased to announce Quiet Time, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Canadian artist Corri-Lynn Tetz. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. An opening reception will take place at 2660 S La Cienega Blvd, Saturday October 14 from 5 – 7pm.

With titles such as Ecstasy is Necessary, Soft Fascination, and Bleeding Heart, Corri-Lynn Tetz’s paintings draw out connections between the romantic tradition of depicting the female nude and notions of feminist self-determination. Her approach is equal parts humorous and absurd, while conveying a grace and vulnerability from her subjects. Working with the solitary figure, Quiet Time addresses ideas of being on our own, having moments of pleasure or introspection; what is captured on the canvases are in a sense spiritual and sensual crossover events.

Although Tetz uses found images from vintage men’s magazines as the basis for her paintings, she often places her subjects in new environments. Working intuitively with color, she embellishes these settings and poses drawing from her own imagination. For example in Hidden Source, the figure appears surrounded by a mountain of pillows as if reclining in a landscape; a large butterfly disrupts the pictorial space grounding the composition into a dialogue with surrealism, evoking dream logic. Other works seem to laugh along with the absurd fantasies acted out in these taboo periodicals such as Horse Girl; one wonders ‘where are her pants?’ Painterly brush strokes, playful focus, and curious luminosity tease out the humanity of these women and situate them in a psychological arena.

Tetz pushes the boundaries of romanticism to the point of near excess. Through an over-the-top almost saccharine embrace of glamor, beauty, and everything ‘feminine’—lace, makeup, and high heels—the works in Quiet Time go beyond the mere superficial and emerge transformed through poetic fantasy. Together they operate as a commentary on complexities of taste, class, shame, and idolatry within the realm of female sexuality and the politics that shape it.