New work by Emily Lanctot and Lisa Lenarz

New work by Emily Lanctot and Lisa Lenarz

April 4,2015 – April 25, 2015

Opening Reception: First Saturday Art Crawl: April 4,2015; 6-9pm

Blend Studio will be hosting new work by Emily Lanctot and Lisa Lenarz during the month of April. The artist will be available on the opening night of the First Saturday Art Crawl.

Emily Lanctot

“Security Houses”

This work examines seemingly natural cultural tendencies (like buying a car, getting an education, or purchasing a home). On the surface such patterns imply security, freedom, and protection. My interest is in the difference between what a pattern implicates, and what it represents for the individual.

Similar to the ideologies we fall into, this work utilizes pre-existing patterns and templates, including found imagery and security envelopes. I cut into complete, idealized, mass-produced representations in order to produce and examine new, layered narratives.

Lisa Lenarz

“Manufactured Monstrosities”

I want to awaken you. I want you to think about the phrase, “sex sells”. I want you to question the hyper-charged allure of manufactured products, your relationships with them, and how they psychologically and culturally affect behaviors.

The reductively raw drawings in this exhibit are unapologetic social commentaries. I used photographic image fragments from Vogue Magazine to draw various monstrosities that directly confront and challenge the many subversive elements used in advertising to sexualize products and seduce consumers into buying them and becoming defined by them.

I selected shoes, mascara, and lipstick because of their widespread popularity in advertising as signifying products that have the power to entice at a co-dependent cost. A cost that engenders and sexualizes one’s sense of necessity, and perception of power and self.