NYAB Event - Catherine Tafur "Cored"

Catherine Tafur "Cored"

Porter Contemporary

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Porter Contemporary presents Cored, a solo exhibition of paintings by Catherine Tafur. Tafur explores themes of death, violence, vulnerability and loss of innocence in dynamic paintings that create spaces fraught with anxiety. Each of her works, ranging from political assassinations to surreal executions, captures moments of crisis when belief systems come toppling down and layers of comfort and sanity are slowly peeled away.

Highlights from the exhibition include Revolution, pictured above, a painting based on photographs of the beginnings of the 2011 Egyptian revolution morphed with pictures of sports figures and classical Greek sculpture. In a struggle against oppression, wounded characters rise from a desperate need for change, seeking the rebirth of a nation. “The piece is about rage and the nature of heroism, and the exhilaration of the moment when a system is taken down,” says Catherine Tafur.

The Assassination of Osama bin Laden, pictured right, is based on the widely circulated photograph of the
The Assassination of Osama bin Laden, oil on canvas, 52" x 72"
situation room. A massive one-eyed military commander stands in the center of the scene, the figure of death peeks over his shoulder, and the ghosts of the twin towers precede him. The figures of Adam and Eve, taken from Masaccio's Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, are leaving the picture in the upper right, a symbol for loss of innocence. A screaming figure points at the unseen horror happening off-screen.

“The works are large dynamic compositions full of symbolism and historical references. These references combined with Tafur’s technique and carefully fractured space create a psychologically charged exhibition,” says Jessica L. Porter, Founder and Director of Porter Contemporary. \

[Image: Catherine Tafur "Revolution" (2011), oil on canvas, 54 x 61 in.]