Spotlight

Spotlight Alex Paulus

Alex Paulus is originally from south east Missouri but lives in Memphis where he is an Assistant Professor at Southwest Tennessee Community College. His brightly-coloured paintings depict distorted characters on bizarre expeditions, in search of banal dreams and utopias. They have been shown in cities across the world, including Memphis, Nashville, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Aspen, and London. Paulus draws inspiration from the eccentric people and absurd events that he encounters daily. This unconventional work humorously reminds us not to take our hopes and dreams too seriously, while illustrating the beauty of such pursuits.

Living the Dream

My series of distorted figures, Living the Dream, is a reflection on how, while people’s lives can be extremely difficult, they choose to ignore or deny this aspect. In other instances, people try to improve their situation by buying products that they think will improve their lives—but ultimately these attempts falls flat. I constantly think about things in my own life that aren’t working or are broken: I end up rigging these things to make them work temporarily, or I get so used to them being broken, that I don’t even notice anymore. I also like to include humour in my work and the titles. I hope my paintings give people a laugh while also helping people to think about how they spend their time on this planet.

Spotlight

Leah Edelman-Brier

Leah Edelam-Brier is a visual artist who works primarily with photography. She reveived her B.F.A. from Rhode Island College and holds an M.F.A. in Art Photography from Syracuse University. Through her work she explores ideas around the female body, creating images that aim to disrupt traditional beauty ideals by exploring themes of desire, fertility, family, and metamorphosis.

Body Becoming

My series, Body Becoming, aims to fi nd beauty in what society would class as grotesque, while simultaneously questioning the resilience of the female body. The images explore the space between youth and decrepitude, confronting the universal fear of ageing and becoming one’s mother. Through the series, I intend to humanise the decay of ageing, encouraging viewers to recognise the beauty in both the elderly body and its youthful counterpart.

To see more from Leah visit leahedelmanbrier.com

Sessa Omoregie Spotlight

London-based digital artist, art director and copywriter Sessa Omoregie is fascinated with cyber culture and issues around femininity. Her work exists in the digital realm and she employs collaging and glitching techniques to investigate concepts of identity.

Camgirls

Camgirls is the interactive, collaborative digital art project for today’s Venus. Selfies replace female figures in iconic paintings from the history of art, reclaiming them from existing as subjects for the male gaze. The project has existed online for roughly five years, but has only found a home in recent months after floating between blogs, Facebook posts, unsourced re blogs, art websites and online discussions. Camgirls continues as a web platform for women and non-binary people to create, discuss, and experiment with self-identity on the internet.

To see more from Sessa visit camgirls-project.com