Painting on textiles stretched over bars, Ellen Hanson (b.1992) probes the performance of femininity: the resilience hidden beneath the veneer of fragility, the clockwork domestic routines that cloak complex inner lives, and the choreographed displays of elegance that must be scrubbed of the strife that underlies them. First sketching female figures in charcoal on elastic jersey cotton, Hanson pulls the underpainting on fabric to create distortions in the figure, physically embodying the experience of being stretched thin. The exaggerated figures are then painted over in oil, smoothed of all brushstrokes, and adorned with hints of decoration, creating the impression of a physically perfect surface where none could reasonably exist. The resulting paintings reflect the contradictions of our constructed notion of womanhood, where frustration is expected to take a backseat to frivolity, and the specter of failing to live up to the ideal is constantly looming.

Hanson received her BA in Painting and Art History at Bennington College, Bennington, VT in 2014, and later received her MFA in Painting and Printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA in 2021. She has been the subject of solo/duo exhibitions recently at Eden Airlines, Richmond, VA (2022); The Anderson Gallery, Richmond, VA (2021); Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL (2019); The Winchester, Chicago, IL (2018); Friendzone, Chicago, IL (2017); and Miishkooki, Skokie, IL (2017). Her work resides in the public collection of Bennington College, Bennington, VT. Hanson currently lives and works in Mexico City, MX.

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