Contrary to their grave, subdued colours, Anna Weyant's paintings draw attention to the playful and ironic, with a touch of disquietude or tragedy. Weyant's work typically depicts young girls and women as well as still lifes, drawing on autobiographical and art historical references.
Read MoreAnna Weyant garnered attention in 2018 for her participation in the group exhibition, Of Purism, at Miami's Nina Johnson Gallery, where she showed Reposing V (2018). The oil painting depicts a reclining young woman clad in a white bathrobe with one leg raised in the air. On the wall behind her, a mirror reflects a pair of manicured hands holding up an iPhone. A seriousness is produced by the paintings' muted colours and figure in repose, which evoke the palette and reclining nudes of art historical precedents. However, the woman's comical posture and contemporary gadget ultimately disrupt the illusion.
Weyant has cited eclectic sources of inspiration for her paintings, ranging from children's books and cartoons to Dutch masters and contemporary artists such as John Currin, Lisa Yuskavage, and Will Cotton.
While the waxy complexions and still composures of Anna Weyant's figures are often described as doll-like, they serve as actors performing an array of emotions and actions in tragicomic narratives. Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others (2019), for example, which borrows its title from a 1985 song by The Smiths, depicts a girl who has stuffed her bra with tissues to no avail—her head and eyes, dropping to the side, are engulfed by disappointment and defeat.
In her interviews, such as with Coveteur and Juxtapoz in 2020, the artist has said that many of her paintings derive from her personal experiences and observations. Weyant frequently uses her friends and herself as models for her work, although the finished product rarely bears resemblance to the original person. Often, adult models will be transformed into adolescent girls. Weyant's occupation with teenage hood, as she told Juxtapoz, results from her fascination with the period as 'a traumatic, dramatic, devastating, and hilarious time'.
Following her breakout solo exhibition, Welcome to the Dollhouse, at New York's 56 Henry Gallery in 2019, Anna Weyant held her first solo show with Blum & Poe at the gallery's Los Angeles location in 2021.
Entitled Loose Screw, the exhibition featured large-scale paintings depicting young female characters such as the comically yawning figure in Slumber or the woman eerily smiling as she falls down a flight of stairs in Wit of The Staircase (both 2020).
Loose Screw also included still life paintings such as Buffet (2020). With its dark, ambiguous backdrop and crisp, white table, the work is reminiscent of a Dutch still life, albeit with more sinister subjects: a knife penetrating a slice of bread and piranhas served on a plate.
Selected solo exhibitions include Loose Screw, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles (2021); Welcome to the Dollhouse an56 Henry, New York (2019).
Anna Weyant has participated in a number of group exhibitions, including: Friend Zone, Half Gallery, New York (2021); Life Still, C L E A R I N G, New York (2020); Sit Still: Self-Portraits in The Age Of Distraction, Anna Zorina Gallery, New York (2020); Bodies in Motion Travelling Bodies, STEMS, Brussels (2020); For Mario, Tina Kim Gallery, New York (2019); Notebook, 56 Henry Gallery, New York (2019); Of Purism, Nina Johnson Gallery, Miami (2018).
Sherry Paik | Ocula | 2021
