Symptoms of Fetishism

Symptoms of Fetishism brings together the work of two artists who paint images associated with feminine beauty, vanity and desire. Frances Jung’s stylistically detached images of women are suggestive of fashion magazine and glamorous paparazzi snap shots. Like silhouettes they are impassive; their personalities fading under the fetishment of generic beauty over individuality. Allyson Keehan concentrates on the objects associated with beauty reflecting the ‘you’re worth it’ culture, telling women the key to attractiveness is found in the material objects and products we buy rather than in our self esteem. Keehan’s style is more refined and literal using contrived still lifes in her studio to focus in an analytical way on such emblematic material. Jung draws on iconic images of women from magazines using a more suggestive and loose painterly approach. The result is an exhibition of highly desirable paintings, objects of delicate beauty in themselves. Frances Jung graduated with a BA in Fine Art from the University of Ulster in 1993 and an MA in fine Art from the Royal College of Art in London in 1995. She has exhibited widely including solo exhibitions at the Paton Gallery, London, the Raum Linkestrasse, Berlin 2002 and the Market Place Arts Centre, Armagh, 2003. She lives and works in Dublin. Allyson Keehan graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Limerick School of Art and Design in 2002 and a MA from the Byam Shaw College of Art, London in 2004. She has exhibited in London and recently in Newcastlewest Library, Limerick. She lives and works in Limerick.

Image: Allyson Keehan, My Carnival Mask, 2006, 37 x 32cm