Vancouver-based artist Lauren Brevner creates mesmerizing mixed media portraits of women. Employing an eclectic range of mediums, her work blurs the line between cutting-edge contemporary painting and traditional Japanese arts and crafts.
Opting for wooden panels instead of treated canvas, Brevner looks to the past when creating her paintings. Her ethereal portraits creatively combine oil and acrylic paint with glossy resin and glimmering silver and gold leaf. These applied materials add luster and luminosity to her work, putting a contemporary spin on Klimt‘s signature shimmer.
In addition to resin coatings and metal accents, Brevner’s mixed media portraits also feature exquisite collages of traditional Japanese paper, including mulberry bark washi and silkscreened chiyogami and yuzen. Brever, who is of mixed heritage, was inspired to incorporate these materials into her practice after living in Osaka, Japan, where she fell in love with art and embarked on a “journey to self-taught fruition.”
On top of a distinctive mixture of materials, Brevner’s paintings are also renowned for their striking female subjects. To the artist, each of these figures embodies empowerment, serving not merely as an artistic muse, but as “a reflection of the vitality of sensuality over sexuality.”
You can see more of Brevner’s work, including glimpses into her unique technical process, on Instagram.
Inspired by traditional Japanese art practices, Lauren Brevner creates mixed media portraits of women.
Lauren Brevner: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr
h/t: [INAG]
All images via Lauren Brevner.
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