Elly Verso Gouache Painting. All images courtesy the artist
Embroidery, considered by most to be in the realm of museum tapestries and Jane Austen character hobbies, is the innovative and unique format in which Cayce Zavaglia creates her powerful portraits of friends, family, and fellow artists. Her latest body of work will be presented at the Lyons Wier Gallery in New York at a solo show called About-Face starting November 5. In it, the artist explores her recent discovery of the power and representation found in the reverse side of the embroideries. The front looks like a hyper-realistic painting which only reveals itself to be embroidered upon closer inspection. Meanwhile, “the haphazard beauty found in this verso image created a haunting contrast to the front image and was a world […] that could easily translate into the world of paint,” she explains.
Advertisement
Cayce Zavaglia | Portrait and Process from Garrett Zavaglia on Vimeo.Zavaglia was trained as a painter, but shifted her focus to embroidery in order to establish a non-toxic studio environment and to “create a body of work that referenced an embroidered piece [she] had made a child growing up in Australia.” Her embroidery work is influenced by the process of painting, and she has established a technique that allows her to “mimic the way brush marks are layered within a painting.” The result is a body of work that is strong, approachable, and personal. The gaze of her subjects is the focus of the fronts of the pieces, inescapable in their directness and the directness of their portrayal.In this show, Zavaglia focuses on the backs of her tapestries, a view that is generally hidden from the viewer. “The network of loose ends, knots and chaos” seen on the backs (the show also includes paintings of the backs of the pieces) “corresponds to—but remain[s] psychologically different from—the meticulously sewn front image” and explores notions of identity, especially the two identities each person possesses, the private and presented self.Check out images of Zavaglia’s stunning embroideries and paintings below:
ONE EMAIL. ONE STORY. EVERY WEEK. SIGN UP FOR THE VICE NEWSLETTER.
By signing up, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy & to receive electronic communications from Vice Media Group, which may include marketing promotions, advertisements and sponsored content.
