April 5 – April 29, 2023
Suspended in a cotton candy dream world, Hapner’s nudes stared down mirrored versions of themselves — desire and self-examination in equal measure.
Girls Will Be Girls: Emma Hapner at VillageOneArt offered fantastical portraits of beauty and danger shown suspended in an innocuous, cotton candy dream world. Hapner’s nudes emoted various psychological states, from introspection to mania. Her meticulously composed figures adopted tantalizing poses in works such as “I’m Not Like Other Girls, I’m Much Worse.” The pose of the centrally-placed figure, referencing the Greek Myth of Narcissus, stared at another version of themselves. Nude except for a pair of boots, the figure dominating the scene evoked desire and self-examination in equal measure.
Hapner’s balance of seduction and tension, depicted surrounded by saccharine sweet orange and pink hues, recalled the female gaze of empowerment in considering both the compositional style of Renaissance imagery and contemporary portraiture in the vein of contemporary artists such as John Currin. Hapner paid careful attention to expressions, which she portrayed delicately along with a detailed attention to curvilinear composition and volume.
In a social media-obsessed world of selfies and filters, Hapner’s paintings of feminine empowerment exuded a raw sense of honesty, revelation and self-awareness. Multi-dimensional and introspective, the inevitable sensuousness of Hapner’s paintings ultimately revealed that self-perception formed a potent means of determining what was enticing, what was dangerous, and what hovered evasively between the two.
Works in the Exhibition
Girls Will Be Girls was on view at VillageOneArt, 150 West 25th Street, Suite 403, New York, from April 5 to April 29, 2023. For inquiries regarding available works by Emma Hapner, please contact info@villageoneart.com.