Tuesday, November 25, 2008

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL -- NEW JERSEY ARTIST CELESTE RAPONE


"Garden Groomer", oil on canvas, 25" x 50"

one of my favorite jersey artists has a new show ... check it out!


"Host" , Oil and Acrylic on Canvas 36" x 40"

CELESTE RAPONE


2008 PHOENIX GALLERY FELLOWSHIP WINNER
"VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL"


NOVEMBER 26 – DECEMBER 20, 2008


OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, December 4, 6-8 PM


INSTANT GRATIFICATION: I'm interested in superficial and product-oriented interference in the natural phases of life, as it pertains to childhood encounters with religion and sex. As a girl raised Catholic, I became accustomed to attractive versions of unattractive ideas in vessels that appealed to me at a young age. Storytelling formulas and strategies are used by parents to make certain complexities, such as Catholicism and sex, appear more final and less questionable. At 23, I'm beginning to dissect those issues that were once deemed absolute. My paintings are adult responses to the formulas I was fed as a child; they're about realizing that the notion of the unobtainable being attainable is indeed false. My body of work challenges the Catholic church's myth of accessibility by acknowledging the impossibility of mimicking an ideal Catholic figure, and by exploring a more personal and organic mode of power and sensuality: sex and the female form.


Celeste Rapone was raised in Wayne, NJ and attended the Rhode Island School of Design, where she received her B.F.A. degree in 2007. Ms. Rapone is the winner of the 2008 Phoenix Gallery Fellowship Program at the Phoenix Gallery.

PHOENIX GALLERY 210 Eleventh Ave. @ 25th St., Suite 902, New York, NY 10001

Tuesday through Saturday, 11:30 – 6:00 PM
212-226-8711 212-343-7303 fax




No comments: