Carri “Persons of Interest”

Sideshow Gallery

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Persons of Interest is an exhibition of portraits of women. Carri has always been inspired by women of strength, beauty, courage and curiosity.
Women whose work and lives she admires.
Women with attitude.
Women who’ve lived flamboyant lives.
Women who’ve lived up to the quote, “well behaved women rarely make history.”
The show consists of paintings on paper, linocuts and small acrylic paintings on panel. Carri “fingerpaints” with dry pearl powders on wet, black printmaking ink. She uses her hands, fingers and eyeshadow sponges in lieu of a brush: the lustrous and sensuous quality of the pearl powders is perfectly suited for the subject matter. In Carri’s words, “it’s like painting with makeup.”

Artist Statement

My work has always been about portraiture. I am fascinated by personality and human behavior.

My work is a reflection of the world around me.

For many years now, my work has been an exploration in expressing female sexuality and allure as a vehicle of power. Eye candy with balls, so to speak. The work is a sly homage and backward glance: “if I knew then what I know now.” A stab at reclaiming the power of seduction. It’s a reconciliation of the qualities we are often taught are mutually exclusive - strength, beauty, sexiness, power, sensuality, and intelligence. The female body as a power tool. I’m concerned with the sensuality of the materials as well as the subject matter. The inherent sultriness of the pearl powders is integral to my work.

The resulting images are women - contentious, bold, and unashamed in their sexuality and sensuousness.

Or in the Words of Carri’s Critics:

“Skoczek is much like a naughty child scribbling obscenities that are actually cries for a fresh box of psychic kleenex. Her work has a wild self-parodying abandon,” - James Auer

“The messages of her paintings drop like cinder blocks on the head; her composition is left handed and it looks like she lays down her paint with slices of bread rather than brushes. But there is still something oddly fascinating about her work.” - Dean Jensen

Carri is a painter, printmaker, costume designer and voodoo doll maker. She has exhibited extensively for the last 23 years across the United States, the Caribbean, and Mexico. Stylistically her paintings reference German Expressionism. Indeed, a particular hero of hers is Egon Schiele. But she also counts strong women in the arts and fashion as her heroes such as Iris Apfel and Laurie Anderson. Carri’s paintings are often feminine in style and feminist in subject matter portraying women toreadors, women circus performers, women samurai, feisty women and the like , even her choice of media - pearlized pigments- enhances this aspect of the works. In addition to her painting and print work,Carri has created costumes for Carnival in Trinidad and theaters in Wisconsin and curated the annual Mermaid Parade Exhibition in Coney Island. Most recently, she completed a residency in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.