Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Revisiting Bedroom Views by Karen Ann Myers

Based in Charleston, South Carolina, painter Karen Ann Myers uses the bedroom as the backdrop to each of her works, both idealizing the space and offering vulnerability and strength with each subject. Specifically, the bed used as reference in each piece belongs to Myers, while the rooms are retrofitted with new styles, adored objects, and context. The result is a singular personality, with her own elegance and character.


Based in Charleston, South Carolina, painter Karen Ann Myers uses the bedroom as the backdrop to each of her works, both idealizing the space and offering vulnerability and strength with each subject. Specifically, the bed used as reference in each piece belongs to Myers, while the rooms are retrofitted with new styles, adored objects, and emotions. The result is a singular personality, with her own elegance and character.




The artist says she knows the women in her paintings personally, and she attempts to maintain a sense of their character with each work. “I am investigating the psychological complexity of women through intimate observations in the bedroom,” Myers says, in a statement. “The work is inspired by the cult of beauty in contemporary mass media. Intricately painted, decorative interiors are invented to titillate the viewer.”




The artist’s works on paper offer an entirely different aesthetic, in which overlapping patterns and less realism make the bedroom experience a more surreal, dream-like experience. Her earlier screenprints offer yet another take on intimacy, in which private moments are worked into intricate, otherwise elegant designs.




Myers is currently on staff at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston.


Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Parker S. Jackson says he tries to strike a balance between "uncanny and realism" in his portraits, which carry notes of both humor and dark art. One of the artist’s greatest strengths is in his ability to create varying, perplexing textures with both digital and traditional materials. We asked the artist about his influences, which he says range from centuries-old work to contemporary pop culture.
New York is often described as concrete jungle, a notion Matthew Grabelsky explores in his paintings of fantasy creatures invading its subway. In his work, unsuspecting bystanders sit on the train looking at their phones as bear-headed men read the newspaper and lions hold the handrails wearing dapper suits. The artist, who is a native New Yorker himself, says that his style is influenced by the 19th-century French Academic painters. "My work is not intended to be viewed as fantasy or as allegory, but rather as a blend of every-day experiences and the subconscious," he says. "My paintings are enigmatic, and they create dream-like worlds that invite viewers to form their own interpretations of the imagery presented."
Chicago-born artist Kayla Mahaffrey crafts portraits of subjects enveloped by pop totems and surreal elements. Her works are rendered in watercolors and acrylics, each oozing with vibrancy and candy colors. Her practice moves between illustration and fine art.
In Gary McMillan’s “Galapagos” series, the painter guides us into alien ecosystems, inviting viewers along as explorers to make any observations they can from the creatures and activity there. The work is rooted in the artist’s interest in both science and art. And McMillan says he is “interested in how one makes sense of new things through remembered experience of the familiar.”

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List