Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga

Structural Patterns

Reflections on Art, Technology and Society

Archive for November, 2006

Elizabeth Huey’s American Confections

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Occasionally, not very often, but every now and then I’ll come across paintings that make me want to paint. I am attracted to narrative and when I see interestingly executed paintings that reflect an engaging story, I want to rush to the studio, build a birch panel and pull out the oil paints. I experienced this desire when I came across Elizabeth Huey’s solo exhibition at Feigen Contemporary in Chelsea, NY.

The paintings present fantastic narratives that collapse Christian and Americana iconography to create a confection of stories in a single setting. These are stories that draw from our elementary and high school education by embedding enough visual hints to have the viewer establish associations with pilgrims, a Salem witch trial, the Civil War, the journey into outer space… The scenes are not so concrete that one is given a clear insight into what is happening, rather there are enough clues to make the stories familiar, but strange enough to force the viewer to analyze what is happening, and try to make associations. The viewer becomes a writer of the narrative.

Written by ricardo

November 4th, 2006 at 2:09 pm

Posted in fine_arts