MARC FOXX is pleased to present The Waiting Room, the gallery’s third solo exhibition for Ghent-based artist Cris Brodahl. Brodahl’s corporeal depictions of assemblage are grounded between the figurative and the psychological. The imagery in her paintings can range from bare skin to skull; from bone to thorn thus creating haunting and beautiful still lifes as well as morose and engaging portraiture.

By employing the loaded power of the skull in conjunction with depictions of physical objects of feminine opulence, such as necklaces, jeweled shoes and mirrors, Brodahl binds human temporality with tropes of beauty. In the painting The Clock, (2009) a female ballerina wears what seems like a collaged skirt of mandible and skull. The mirrored extension from which the paintings slides, doubles as backdrop or curtain, reflecting a fractured image of the viewer and thus implicating the viewer’s role as audience.

Her technical skill allows room for distinct depictions of universal subject matters: death, religion, sexuality and materiality. Ultimately, these paintings question dimensionality, scale and origin. Yet, it is really the configuration of the assemblage which lends to psychological investigation.

Cris Brodahl has recently exhibited at The Approach in London and Xavier Hufkens in Brussels. Her solo exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum opened in July of 2010.