Hope Gangloff‘s portraits of her Brookyn hipster friends draw from classical art styles to portray contemporary subjects. These expressionist paintings showcase modern “bohemian” people; as a description for one of her exhibitions phrases it, her work creates “a sympathetic link between the historic avant-garde and post-postmodern hipsterism.”
I particularly enjoy the feeling of casual intimacy these paintings provide. Afternoon Shower and Freelancer (Mikey Hernandez) show men bathing; while Sara Vanderbeek in Her Bath Closet shows a woman in a robe painting her toenails. A nude woman looks thought record albums in Lina in My House. The nudity in these paintings is tasteful and is more implied, rather than used for shock value. Even the portraits showing people with clothes feel unusually intimate, like the artist has captured them at their most comfortable, just lounging around with close friends. Several of the paintings show the subjects sitting in a chair drinking beer or smoking, and Clothes Swap Brooklyn shows two women lying next to each other, surrounded by dishevelled clothes.
I also like Gangloff’s use of colour, especially for the unusual skin tones of the subjects, and the textured brush strokes she uses more heavily in certain areas of the paintings — like the subjects’ clothes or the interesting backgrounds.
Clothes Swap Brookyn
Sara Vanderbeek in Her Bath Closet
Afternoon Shower
Queen Jane Approximately
Land’s End (Vic Masny)
Lina in My House
Andrei
Great Songs of the 70s
Freelancer (Mikey Hernandez)
AA MVP
