Interference
Ascent
Unfastened
Rebecca Brey
Artist Statement
I paint women whose faces and bodies are fractured, obscured, and partially withheld. Built from geometric planes, the figures seem to hold together while also coming apart.
Each painting begins with a pencil sketch and a palette specific to the figure. From there, the image shifts through the painting process. Color may unify the form or disrupt it; a face may become more legible or disappear into the surrounding structure. I am drawn to the point at which a figure remains present but cannot be fully read.
The women are invented rather than portraits, but their emotional charge comes from lived experience. The work considers how people perform steadiness, manage vulnerability, and conceal parts of themselves in order to function. Through interrupted faces, obscured features, and bodies that appear both constructed and dissolving, the paintings ask: what does it cost to keep yourself together, and what remains hidden in the process?