My artwork explores themes of psychology, social commentary and humorous disruptions of original and found imagery. My primary medium is photography. I use models that I pose and direct into tableaus for the camera. These images are mixed into digital photomontages combined with media imagery, bookplates, and elements of vintage magazines into graphic compositions often featuring a central figure. The work is grouped into conceptual series developed over a one to five year period. I print my own gicleé pigment prints. Over the years I have also worked with film photography, clay sculpture, small figuartive paintings, installation and paper collage. Influenced by Surrealism, Feminism, and The Pictures Generation the images are satirical, irreverent, and playful.
"Paula is part of the Pictures Generation of artists, whose approach to art was shaped by the appropriation of media and advertising imagery. In her art practice, she mimics the techniques and content of media imagery but subverts the message by restaging the elements so her works have new social and political interpretations. Her influences are linked to a few different post-modern trajectories of art history, such as concept art, identity art, and feminist art." - Curator Stephanie Browne
Email: info@paulagillen.net
Cell: 917-693-4534