Lauren Mendelsohn-Bass “Sugar Coated”
Solo Exhibition
Red Mountain Gallery, Truckee Meadows Community College 7000 Dandini Blvd Reno, NV 89512
Opening Reception: Thursday Feb 13, 2020 5-7 PM On view February 13 to March 11, 2020
http://www.mendelsohnbassfineart.com/ https://www.facebook.com/events/1416648981850904/ Instagram: @mendelsohnbass
Mixing pop imagery and classic noir iconography, Sugar Coated draws the viewer into an enticing candy-coated world, only to find all is not as sweet as it appears. Inspired by 1950’s era advertising, “Sugar Coated” is a nod to classic Film Noir and its emotive German Expressionist roots. It takes us on a journey through the world of superficial reality–where artificially alluring and nostalgically innocent context masks darker thoughts, ideas and actions. Playing on the visual tropes of mass marketing and vintage advertisements, this work explores the ways reality is obscured when presented as ostensibly attractive. As popular culture navigates an era of “fake news”, social media, and alternative facts –nothing is as it seems. These paintings examine today’s culture where truth is fluid; ideas issues and events are routinely reframed to reinforce a brand, and even daily life is depicted in a series of perfectly posed, edited and filtered images on social media.
The exhibition delves into complex emotions around what we desire, and more specifically, the mass marketed idea of desirability in lifestyle, perception, physical characteristics, conspicuous consumerism and more. “Sugar Coated” seduces the senses with luscious color and alluring imagery expertly depicted with great detail. The artist wields realism as a means to expose the lack of reality in socially constructed norms.
About Lauren Mendelsohn-Bass Lauren Mendelsohn-Bass is a Los Angeles born painter who received her Bachelor of Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her work depicts the psychology of the mind’s inner conflicts and struggles, portrayed through her figures’ outward appearance and gestures. She often emphasizes the psychological drama with a monochromatic, Film Noir feel in order to examine what makes us tick. Her large, figurative paintings have a climactic, narrative quality with a focus upon emotional suspense, with each glance suggesting a passion or crime.
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