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The Past, Present and Feminism

by Reayanna Erving | April 4, 2019

During an interview, French playwright Françoise Sagan once stated that “art must take reality by surprise”; a perfect description for the moment I stepped into the gallery housing Carrie Ann Baade’s oil paintings. Her paintings leapt forth from the wall with a vibrancy that begs for attention as one attempts to fully grasp the depth of meaning these pieces offer.

 

With an emphasis on connecting historical landmarks with contemporary trends such as ambiguity, the female perspective, and self-reflection, she creates a realm of otherworldly personas that uniquely blurs the line between the past and the modern era. While walking through the gallery, I found it hard to pull myself away from each of the paintings I paused to admire. I often stepped in for a closer look just to prove its two-dimensionality as she enhances the surface with intricate and deliberate shading and shadowing that are the cause of the 3D effect.

 

Carrie Ann Baade’s Angels and Carnivorous Flowers runs through April 14th, 2019 at the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum.

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