ART BASEL MIAMI—LOS ANGELES PAINTER DONNA ISHAM BALANCES BEAUTY and POWER of the FEMALE FORM WITH 'unBOUNDED' SERIES
MIAMI, December 2, 2019 (Newswire.com) - Fine artist Donna Isham will premiere her latest female-centric series, "unBounded," featured at the Hyatt Regency Hotel lobby, Dec. 4-8, 2019 for Art Basel's Design + Miami. The 22 painting installation was constructed similarly to a jigsaw puzzle, with individual paintings arranged as parts of the whole. This speaks to the diversity and complexity of women.
In the unBounded series, Isham uses acrylic, charcoal, oil and pastel to reconstruct the female form in the abstract, reshaping the standardized ideals of female symmetry to a more fluid concept of beauty and power—unBounded. Naked and raw, these paintings are seen a parts of a whole, are pure and poetic, done with swift gestural motions, sensual and emotive lines and shading. "I am seeking to break the preconceptions that limit us," says Isham. "As women, as nurturers, as leaders and as a workforce, we have been subjugated for too long by archaic portrayals of women that no longer serve us. This is also true in Art. We've had too few women painting women from a female gaze, their experience, and their passion. We must embrace our diversity, our sexuality, our power, our individuality. This is why I titled the series unBounded, meaning having no limits."
In Isham's figurative abstract works she utilizes live models and photographs, exploring different forms of the body, using a variety of mediums from oil and acrylic, to charcoals and pastels. Her strong, dramatic and swift mark making with brushes and palette knives compels the viewer to experience both motion and emotion, "I am interested in distilling feelings and emotion in my work in order to create a dialogue with the viewer," says Isham. "To reevaluate female beauty and power in all its forms."
With the unBound series, Isham chose to depict the deconstructed female form using only black, white and shades of grey. "I want to challenge perceptions by taking away the familiarity of color and to focus more on the subject matter and its emotional state. In this case the raw, naked power of women."
Isham is represented at Art Basel Miami by Maria Apostolidis of DAC Gallery. (www.dacconcepts.com). Isham is also premiering her Abstract work, "Improvisation," at Red Dot Miami, and several of her figurative abstract paintings at the d|a|c art space.
Donna Isham is a self-taught abstract and figurative painter. Humanistic values permeate her work – the resilience and compassion of humanity. She draws influence from her vast experience in the entertainment and fashion industry as well as the philanthropic route her career has taken, serving as President of Artists for Human Rights Foundation. Her works are in private collections around the world.
Source: DAC Concepts
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