Nude Selfies Are Transformed Into Paintings at This London Exhibition
Presenting Drea Cofield’s “Soft Exchanges” at the Soho Revue.
This artist is taking your nude selfies and turning them into paintings. Soho Revue in London presents “Soft Exchanges”, a solo show by American painter Drea Cofield. Vulnerability, desire and control are front and center in this intimate exhibition.
The show continues Cofield’s long-term project “Send Me Your Selfies” that began in 2012, where the artist transformed submitted selfies into intimate portraits. Inspired by the images shared by consenting adults, the works explore how digital technologies are shaping how we experience desire and agency. The images are essentially “slowed down” through the act of painting, reclaiming the complexity of each figure and giving them a sense of presence. In submitting their own photographs, the women are asserting control over how they are represented, subverting the traditional dynamics of the female nude in art history. Here, the models are both the creators and the participants in their images.
The portraits are unique in that they avoid any glamor or ideals, including the ‘imperfections’ or everyday details such as a toothbrush charger or laundry caught in the skewed mirror. These aspects give the paintings a sense of time and place, a sense of reality. The poses are also a significant marker of how the women see themselves. Arched backs and breasts pushed forward, or elsewhere quieter gestures such as the figure at ease in a bath, add nuance to the expectations of the female body. Sometimes the body is simply existing.
In “Soft Exchanges,” Cofield offers an alternative way of perceiving and expands on the right to be seen on one’s own terms. This is a glorious exploration of representation and female intimacy.
This is the last chance to see the exhibition, currently on view at the Soho Revue in London, until October 31.
In other news, check out this exhibition exploring the female nude through history.
