Bull’s Eye on the Feminine Mystique

Anonymous Women series by Eva Lake

Eva Lake, the artist

A Wall of Women Targets by Eva Lake

A set of Judd Montages by Eva Lake

Guests target their eyes on Lake's art

Ready! Aim! Estrogen! Eva Lake presented three series of work at her first New York solo exhibition with “Judd Women Targets” with an opening last April 19, 2012 at frosch & portmann. This artist from Portland, OR presented her collage series namely: the Judd Montages, Anonymous Women, and the Targets Series.

Arte Fuse has always been a fan of this gallery space on Stanton Street for its exceptional artworks and brand of exhibitions. For this round, collages with a clear touch of estrogen on some and esoteric inclusions of Donald Judd seem to hit the spot. Each cut image is placed in an array of cohesive color schemes that are harmonious and composed with a definite stylistic method. The meticulous manner and play of color is not a simple cut and paste job. A great degree of thought comes into play as the feminine mystique contributes to an abstract narrative.

For the Judd Montages, Lake found the vintage 1960’s Art in America that featured the works of Donald Judd left behind by the art dealer who once lived in an illegal sublet. For two decades, she held on to it but was very much inspired by the austere nature of Judd’s sculptures. By cutting the distinct work and placing it into dreamlike landscapes, the modernist looking pieces become a prominent feature in the montages she created. Judd’s non-content lends itself as a protagonist into the fanciful world that Lake fashioned.

The Target Series is the next progression from the Judd Montages. Lake has collected vintage magazines filled with glamorous images of women before developing her art in collage. Couple this fascination with her trips to the rifle range in her teenage years to steal shooting practice targets and this series came to fruition. Women are always a target and being objectified in culture. By combining these two subjects of starlets or models with the concentric target bull’s eye circle, the narrative of these women defiantly gazing back then breaking through the line of target is thought provoking. Her current series Anonymous Women is a play again on the parts that celebrate beauty is more than its entirety. Cut up body parts like eyes and lips appear unexpectedly on certain scenes. It is like a jolt of feminine agenda where the parts will take over each entity. The woman is found in the ocean, sky, and in the minutiae of other scenarios that the very presence of her is a tad bit dangerous to confront.

Maybe in these cut up methodology that Lake expresses the idea of femininity is more than skin deep and definitely more than the sum of its parts.

Eva Lake. Judd Women Targets / On View: April 19 – June 3, 2012

Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Sunday (12 noon – 6 pm)

frosch & portmann. 53 Stanton Street. New York, NY 10002

article by: Oscar A. Laluyan

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