Hot off a wildly successful few years stateside, New York-based contemporary artist Natasha Wright is now set to take up residence at Newmarket’s Sanderson Gallery, with an anticipated new solo show entitled Main Character — scheduled to run from Wednesday, October 15, through until November 9.
The show will feature nine original works fresh from Wright’s Brooklyn studio. Each is a celebration of the sinuous female form, rendered through Wright’s multilayered social commentary. Through the tactility of paint, Wright’s sweeping canvases are awash in muddied pinks and warming honey hues, each stroke a celebration of womanhood at its most elusive.
Main Character “emphasises the interchangeability between the ideal woman and the physical and cultural history that shapes her long hair and lovely waist.” Wright is, and perhaps always has been, unpacking what it truly means to be living in your feminine.
Best known for “exploring the dichotomies of womanhood and the gender-driven power dynamics perpetuated in popular culture,” Wright is an artist whose message has continued to evolve in a captivating way. Living and working in New York for almost a decade, the New Zealander has developed a distinct creative language that marries various iterations of the female form with the rich qualities of oil paint. Wright’s pieces draw the onlooker in with calligraphic brushstrokes, evocative colours, layered techniques and compelling forms.
For Wright, the main character’s humanity is firmly located in her body — and in a time when a woman’s right to choose is wildly under threat in the United States, Wright’s work feels more necessary now than ever.
See here for the Issue 50 cover story on Natasha Wright.
