Nicole Etienne `The Great Escape`

Nicole Etienne ‘The Great Escape’
19th November – 22nd December 2015
Private View: Wednesday 18th November 2015, 6.30–8.30pm
Mead Carney Fine Art, 45 Dover Street, W1S 4FF London
Mead Carney is pleased to present ‘The Great Escape’, a selection of paintings from
Nicole Etienne’s most renowned body of works.
"Painting is just like love making. Sometimes
slow, sensuous strokes of the brush and
prolonged drags of charcoal are right. And other
times quick splatters and fast lush swipes of
color are the technical narrative a painting
needs to reveal the story. One of my favorite
artists, Eric Fischl, told me that if I am not
feeling what I am painting, nobody else will
either. I actualize joy while creating art, sort of
rev up the engine and materialize sex, love,
lust... whatever it is I am trying to evoke."
Nicole Etienne, 2013.
As visually striking as they are conceptually
intriguing, the paintings invite the viewer to
engage on a deeply personal level, to ponder
their own identity and to surrender to a process
of self-reflection through encountering Etienne’s
elaborate subjects.
Nicole Etienne, The Great Escape, 2015
Combining elements of a Contemporary figurative style with Rubenesque notions of
colour and sensuality, Etienne’s ethereal scenes entice the audience into a surreal
world of moments of private passions and dream-like scenarios. Emphasizing
movement through expressive strokes of colour, many of Etienne’s works draw
inspiration from classical literature and mythology, firmly establishing an intricate
narrative to accompany the visual imagery of the paintings.
This narrative is enhanced by the artist’s attention devoted to the most minute details
included in each scene, and by the use of a delicate distribution of light and shadow
to bring romantic landscapes, enigmatic interiors and sensuous female nudes to life.
Etienne’s work explores self-identity as a mirror, juxtaposing the viewer’s hidden
thoughts and intimate desires with the direct openness of her subjects.
Encouraging the audience to explore their emotional response to her paintings, she
initiates a process of questioning and refinement of our understanding of ourselves as
individuals, well as an awareness of the relationships surrounding us.
Within this interplay of visual narrative and self-reflection, Etienne positions the female
figure as a romantic heroine within the intricate tales her works convey to the
audience. Far from being simply a subject of the male gaze, the female nude
challenges the viewer in her bold directness of presentation, drawing attention to the
fact that the subjects indeed represent multiple layers of meaning, especially due to
the fashion in which these intimate encounters have been exposed on canvas.
Etienne’s subjects are presented with an aura of openness and candour, completely
self-assured in their environment and confident in their expressions of intimacy.
The surface of the works acts as a focal point for the audience, drawing attention to
the delicate production process of Etienne’s paintings, involving the layering of
charcoal, under-painting and oils, the outcome resulting in an almost magnetic effect
on the viewer. Whilst retaining the swiftness of watercolours and combining it with the
depth of oils as the basis of her visual aesthetic, the artist frequently experiments with
incorporating more unusual materials, such as copper leaf, Swarovski crystals and
metallic pigment on glitter canvas.
Nicole Etienne
Nicole Etienne was born in Santa Cruz California in 1974. She started her formal arts
education at UC Santa Barbara, transferring to UC Santa Cruz where she received
her BFA in 1997. She studied abroad at the Lorenzo Medici School of Art in Italy and
graduated with her MFA cum laude in 2009 from the New York Academy of Art.
Her paintings have been exhibited in solo and group shows internationally and are
part of prestigious private and corporate collections, such as the Getty family
collection (San Francisco, USA), the private collections of the founders of Yahoo (Palo
Alto, USA) and Travelocity & C.T.O. (San Carlos, USA), the Pepsi collection (North
Carolina, USA) and the Isle De France Hotel St. Barthelemy. She has previously
worked and lived in Italy and Ireland and is currently living in London.
Mead Carney Fine Art
Mead Carney Fine Art opened in June 2012 on Dover Street, Mayfair, London as a
new contemporary art gallery representing emerging and established artists. Mead
Carney also provides expert advisory services on evaluation, acquisition services and
advice on the art markets of all categories including North American and European
Fine Art, Old Masters, Impressionist, Modern & Contemporary art. Our team of
international art advisors has powerful associations with the world’s most prestigious
artists, art galleries, institutions and auction houses, along with unlimited access to the
very best research and statistical material available.
Mead Carney Fine Art, 45 Dover Street, Mayfair London, W1S 4FF
www.meadcarney.com
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