Lisa Brice
Smoke and Mirrors
Artist Lisa Brice challenges and reinterprets traditional depictions of the female nude. Her paintings contest the often mysoginistic nature of historical figuration - typically painted by white men for white men - by taking ownership over how women are portrayed. Acknowledging the parameters of art history, Brice's works echo iconic compositions by artists such as Degas, Manet, Picasso and Vallotton, but lend their protagonists agency and self-possession.
Lisa Brice studied at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town. In 1998, after a residency at Gasworks, she settled in London, where she still lives and works.
Over the past 20 years she has spent extended periods working in Trinidad, following a workshop in Grande Riviere in 1998, and a residency in Port of Spain the following year with artists Peter Doig, Chris Ofili and Andy Miller. During this time, friendships and working relationships were formed with Trinidadian artists such as Adele Todd, Che Lovelace and Emheyo Bahabba aka Embah (1937- 2015), who was particularly influential.
Published on the occassion of the exhibition, Lisa Brice: Smoke and Mirrors (21 November, 2020 - 05 April, 2021) at KM21. Contains essays by Jennifer Higgie (Editor at Large of Frieze magazine and creator of the podcast Bow Down, Women in Art History), Aïcha Mehrez (Assistant Curator at Tate Britain), Laura Smith (Curator at Whitechapel Gallery, London) and Attillah Springer (Trinidadian author).
Jennifer Higgie, Aïcha Mehrez, Laura Smith, Attillah Springer and Yasmijn Jarram, 2021
Softcover 208 pages
Publisher: KM21, Salon 94, and Stephen Friedman Gallery
ISBN: 9781527282070
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