Elsie Kagan "full and by," 2012, acrylic and oil on canvas 60" x 60"
“What sort of art would you show if you had access to the Brooklyn Museum’s space, its power, its audience?”
Our critic, Sarah Schmerler, asked this question last fall; then she started her own curatorial initiative called “GO:Curate.” She selected the paintings of Lori Ellison and Elsie Kagan as a good place to start building a show of pertinent art made by women working in Brooklyn today. Here’s a taste of what an exhibition might look like, with two works by each.
About the artists:
Lori Ellison has been making labor-intensive works in ballpoint pen on paper and gouache on panel for two decades. They may be humble in scale (no larger than a piece of notebook paper), but their surfaces pulsate with energy.
Lori Ellison, "Untitled," 2010 Gouache on wood panel 7 x 5 inches
Lori Ellison untitled 2011 gouache on wood panel 10" x 8" / Photo Courtesy McKenzie Fine Art, New York
Elsie Kagan studied at Tyler in Philadelphia, and is highly influenced by art history—Northern Renaissance painting and Baroque ceiling painting, in particular. An accomplished muralist, she tends to work large. These two works (pictured below, and at the top of the page) are 5 feet square.
Elsie Kagan" ways to be good and happy, 2012" acrylic and oil on canvas 60" x 60"
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