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Honest Nudes Highlight the Beauty in Every Body

Aleah Chapin renders empathetic portraits that explore aging and gender identity.
Qwill. All images courtesy the artist and Flowers Gallery

The nude portrait is such a thoroughly old-fashioned art form that it’s easy to imagine that it would be nearly impossible for one to incite controversy. But Aleah Chapin paints the kind of nudes that, despite being straight-forward and respectful, still manage to be a lightning rod for controversy because they honestly depict the kind of bodies that our society has decided it would rather not see. Though the Seattle-based painter won the 2012 BP Portrait Award, she had to contend with late critic Brian Sewell calling her prize-winning work, Auntie, which depicted a nude elderly woman, “a grotesque medical record,” and claimed that Chapin had an “obsession with the ghastliness of [aging] flesh.” (This same critic also once said that “There has never been a first rate woman artist.”)

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"I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t affected by negative reactions to my work,” Chapin tells The Creators Project. "It is difficult for sure, especially when the criticism is aimed at my models, because they are doing something so brave and scary by posing for me.” But the criticism only strengthens Chapin’s resolve to continue her practice, as it suggests that her work serves an important cultural purpose. "I’m touching on a cultural nerve, and I think this nerve needs to be examined,” she writes. "Why is it that we have such strong feelings towards the bodies we are in? Why do we have such difficulty seeing images of bodies that are represented in a real way without unrealistic digital manipulation?"

In her latest exhibit, Body/Being, which is now on view at New York’s Flowers Gallery, she continues to explore our bodies and their supposed imperfections. But Chapin also expands her attentions to include gender expression, inspired by the recent transition of her cousin, Qwill. Given the politicalization of trans people’s very bodies in the form of public bathroom laws, Chapin’s portraits of Qwill, and other trans people, are especially affecting. Their flesh is just that—flesh. In the face of nationwide campaigns to depict trans people as bathroom boogeymen, Chapin’s lovely portraits underscore their humanity.

Qwill isn’t the only model to whom Chapin has a personal connection—she regularly paints friends and family. In painting intimates, Chapin feels that she’s able to imbue her work with “more than purely painting technique.” "They have never modeled before,” she says of her subjects, "so they are fully inhabiting their bodies in a raw and honest way."

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"Ultimately, I think I’m able to go deeper into the painting because I’m aware of them as whole people with lives full of the everyday stuff that makes us human. It is an honor to be given that gift of intimacy."

Aleah Chapin’s Body/Being runs at Flowers Gallery until June 11th. For more information, click here.

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