Details:
① Artwork:
Queen Anne
This is a portrait of Queen Anne Boleyn. The work is part of a series by the artist investigating women from different moments in history through a contemporary feminist eye, highlighting those who were overtly scrutinized or sidelined. Each composition focuses on a subject who was penalized for being a talented woman occupying too much space.
Jennie Ottinger’s abstract realist paintings investigate historical events through a contemporary feminist eye. The artist's compositions feature figures at once grotesquely distorted and undeniably charming. Ottinger's work illuminates ways in which women have been misunderstood and misrepresented, controlled and scapegoated throughout history—poignantly connecting to contemporary attitudes and conditions.
Specs:
③ Artist:
Jennie Ottinger’s paintings explore how women have been mistreated, misunderstood and misrepresented throughout history. The artist creates a hierarchy of focus by rendering some of her figures in focused detail while leaving others faceless—accentuating the isolation of the main subjects. Ottinger’s abstract realist compositions feature figures both grotesquely distorted and undeniably charming.
BIO:
Jennie Ottinger was born in North Attleboro, Massachusetts in 1971. The artist received a BA in Art History from University of the Pacific in Stockton, California in 1994, a BFA in illustration from the California College of the Arts in the Bay Area of California in 2000, and an MFA in painting from Mills College in 2008 in Oakland, California.
Exhibitions of Ottinger’s work have taken place at: the Jewish Art Museum in San Francisco, California; the Berkeley Art Center in Berkeley, California; Johansson Gallery in Oakland, California; Conduit Gallery in Dallas, Texas; and Eleven Gallery in London, UK.
Ottinger was a fellow at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California and an affiliate artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin County, California.
Ottinger’s work has been reviewed in: Art in America, Huffington Post, Hyperallergic and It’s Nice That, among others.