New York-based artist Gina Beavers is celebrated for her punchy, tactile work inspired by images culled from the internet. Juxtaposing the ephemeral quality of social media, her paintings are intensely crafted, built up through thick accumulations of acrylic that introduce sculptural three-dimensionality, subverting the flatness of her source material.
Directly meeting the gaze of the viewer in Ultimate Smokey Eye is a large eye accentuated by midnight-black khol. An eyeshadow brush on the left adds the finishing touches, but at the same time, wittily plays to the idea that the painting paints itself. Painted in 2019, the present work is a prime example of Beaver’s exploration into the performative aspect of make-up tutorials and how we choose to portray ourselves online.
Beavers’ practice has most recently been presented in solo exhibitons at Various Small Fires in Seoul (2021), and the Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York (2020). Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Pérez Art Museum Miami and Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.
