We were instantly attracted to the distinctively detailed work
of Kyla Zoe Rafert. This talented painter and printmaker (the black and white
image is a plate etching!) creates narratives fueled by nostalgia, personal
growth, and beauty.
Kyla Rafert is based out of Ohio, south of Columbus. When
she isn’t busy creating art, she is raising her two children, in addition to tending
a variety of animals and a garden. Rafert
received her B.F.A. in printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design, and
her M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she also studied
printmaking on a full scholarship. She has attended several residencies,
Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Women's Studio
Workshop, ACRE, and New York Mills Arts Retreat.
She explains her work further:
I see my current work as the truth bent
to perfection. Set within a meticulously designed world of vanity, beauty, and
abundant pattern, recent works evoke a carefully crafted stage rather than the
happenstance of real life. Echoing fairy tales and Dutch genre paintings of the
17th century, my paintings illustrate adolescent girls and young women in
scenes that play on Romantic notions such as the peril of curiosity, the
potency of beauty, and the inevitable fall of innocence. Despite their
childlike references however, these works are meant to embody the prophetic
perspective of an adult looking backward to an overly romanticized, fictive
past. As an adult, one can look longingly at this world of innocence, and
whether it existed or not, they have always fallen from it: they have traded
their naiveté for the role of a diviner.
To see more, check out www.kyla-zoe.com
and find her on Instagram @kyla.zoe.rafert
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