Hyper-realist painter Maria Teicher, featured here, likens the experience of being an artist to being in high school. As a student, she felt like an outcast who didn’t quite fit in, a “loner” forced into an artificial social dynamic. Teicher explores this theme in per paintings, which portray people in powerless moments, often wrapped in “veils” that distort their faces. Her work almost stops your breath, not only for her impressive use of the oil medium, but because you can feel the moment of constriction. For her latest body of work “Here Together, So Alone” at Arch Enemy Arts in Philadelphia, Teicher observes how we group ourselves together as humans while remaining inexplicably alone. The clear, veiled pieces that envelop her figures are meant to represent masks, which she says mirror our personalities. Sometimes, a lip, an eyelid, or article of clothing peeks through, revealing the true form that is underneath. In her show statement, Teicher says, “People are always covering pieces of themselves to be well mannered, accepted, more liked, etc. Sometimes our masks are transparent and sometimes they are more opaque. This process can be quite suffocating in certain situations.” The centerpiece of her exhibit is a piece portraying two figures wrapped by a veil; lovers slightly separated by the material that binds them and unable to fully complete their embrace. They are together, while still being alone.
Maria Teicher’s “Here Together, So Alone” is now on view at Arch Enemy Arts in Philadelphia through November 1st, 2015.
