About the artwork:
The artists focus is on the instability of the body and its tendency to shift, merge, and lose definition. Wells is interested in how these transformations unsettle the divide between human and nonhuman. The hybrid creatures within the piece serve as agents of this shifting world. They construct the human forms, which act out in the many ways people do, eventually leading them back into the ground, a tragic comedy that repeats itself and begins the cycle anew.
This painting reflects Wells ongoing interest in grotesque metamorphosis and the blurred edges between organic forms. Through deliberate mark-making, she aims to reveal the body as something mutable and inseparable from the environment it inhabits, challenging the illusion that we stand apart from the natural systems that continually break us down and rebuild us.
About the artist:
Wells uses painting, drawing, printmaking, and animation to communicate ideas of environment, relationships, and body/gender. In Willow Wells' creations, the metamorphic journey becomes a visual language, inviting viewers to engage with and reflect upon the nuanced complexities of the human experience.
She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts where she studied the figure as well as traditional techniques. She then received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of South Florida. She began employing concepts of metamorphosis into her work, resulting in figures seamlessly merging with botanical elements.
Her work has been exhibited at the Sarasota Art Museum, Bradbury Art Museum, and the Contemporary Art Museum in Tampa, Florida. Her work is also held in the permanent collection of Arkansas State University
