Jamie Vasta presents After Car­avag­gio, a con­tem­po­rary refram­ing of Michelan­gelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s his­toric paint­ings in homage to the great mas­ter on the 400^th anniver­sary of his death, (1573 — 1610). Vasta gath­ers friends and col­leagues as muse for her ambi­tious recast­ing of Caravaggio’s famous paint­ings. In rethink­ing such paint­ings as Giu­ditte e Oloferne, 1599, and Depo­sizione, 1602, Vasta com­posed her coterie with the props of today, turn­ing gen­der, dress, and envi­ron­ment on end. The inten­tion of the orig­i­nal comes for­ward, no her­aldry of aris­toc­racy, but an eman­ci­pa­tion of the peas­antry, under hot the­atre lights of course. The exhi­bi­tion includes 10 paint­ings, exe­cuted in glit­ter, cloaked in chiaroscuro.

Jamie Vasta has taken the painterly arts to new alti­tudes with her paint­ings in glit­ter. Her insou­ciant medium is fine-​tuned to accen­tu­ate nar­ra­tive. Her first exhi­bi­tion Mustn’t, began with Angela Carter’s fem­i­nist rework­ing of fairy tales, and ended with a mag­i­cal land­scape, where women with mys­ti­cal pow­ers cavort in deadly play. Vasta’s sec­ond body of work looked at young girls posed in the iconic hunter’s tro­phy pose, with their kill proudly dis­played in a lush land­scape. Her third series were paint­ings with titles derived from sailor’s Shanty songs — the cast included much water and sev­eral men. Lastly, at 30 years, Vasta tack­les Car­avag­gio, with the con­fi­dence of a mas­ter, and mas­ter­ful they are.

Jamie Vasta After Car­avag­gio
April 7^th — May 14^th 2011
Patri­cia Swee­tow Gallery
77 Geary Street Mez­za­nine
San Fran­cisco, CA 94108

Images via Patri­cia Swee­tow Gallery.

Tags: Caravaggio, Jamie Vasta, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 7th, 2011 at 6:12 pm and is filed under Art, Painting, Rising Artists.
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