Lot
30
Toxic Cornucopia
Acrylic on canvas, 2010
183 x 245 cm
Estimate
$5 000
Toxic Cornucopia falls within the scope of an accumulation and appropriation of well-known images. The artist intermingles icons, symbols, and referents born of mythology, art history, current affairs, and popular culture. In this particular painting, one can see the decapitated head of Holophernes, making reference to the biblical story as well as the famous painting by Caravaggio. One also recognizes the figure of Ingres’s La Baigneuse, whose headscarf has here been transformed into a memento mori. The assumed ambiguity of Reis’s work underpins a political, social, and clearly feminist reflection.
Biographical note
Natalie Reis holds a Master’s from Waterloo University (Ontario) and a Bachelor’s from Concordia University. She has already exhibited her work within the framework of several group exhibitions, notably at Usine C, the Division Gallery, the Red Dot Fair in Miami, and the 2009 Biennale de Montréal. Reis’s most recent works demonstrate a high degree of aesthetic sophistication. Her grandiose compositions embody not only the figurative and allegoric, but also the theatrical, through an accumulation and juxtaposition of diverse pop culture symbols and icons that populate our collective existence. Through her compositions, the artist seeks to illustrate the tension that exists in our relationship with visual language. Her work features in the Giverny Capital and Fasken Martineau collections as well as in various private Canadian and American collections.