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BIO Ingrid V. Wells enjoys using playful subject matter to address complex topics including resilience, personal energetics, quantum physics and consciousness. She has exhibited her work professionally since 2010 in the United States, Japan, Israel, South Korea and Ireland. Wells has produced over ten solo exhibitions in the San Francisco Bay Area with Glass Rice Gallery, Voss Gallery, Artists' Television Access, Luna Rienne Gallery, Olive Hyde Gallery, Harrington Gallery and in Arizona with Phoenix Institute of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale Public Art and with Eye Lounge: A Contemporary Art Space. She has exhibited her work in over eighty group exhibitions at galleries and museums including The Museum of Northern California Art (MONCA), Mystic Museum of Art, The Museum of Human Achievement, the CICA Museum in Gimpo-si, South Korea, Tokyo International Art Fair, PULSE Miami Art Fair, The Untitled Space (NY, NY), Foley Gallery (NY, NY), Center for Contemporary Arts (Santa Fe, NM), Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts (Walnut Creek, CA), Modified Arts, (Phoenix, AZ) and was an invited artist for the ACLU Gala in San Francisco, CA. Wells has exhibited and spoken about her work at art schools and research university galleries including Stanford University, (Stanford, CA), Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design (Denver, CO), Jackson Dinsdale Art Center (Hastings, NE), Skyes Gallery (Millersville, PA), Zoller Gallery (State College, PA), Diego Rivera Gallery (San Francisco, CA) and with California College of the Arts. Her work has been featured and reviewed in The Huffington Post, Daily Mail, BUST Magazine, Create! Magazine, W Magazine, Girl Talk HQ, Creative Boom, NYLON, Audiofemme, SF Weekly, Hyperallergic, Flavorwire, KQED, The Jealous Curator, Teen Vogue and in other media publications. In 2019 her painting was invited to be featured as a cover image in Spain’s leading newspaper El País representing the international women’s movement. Wells has received generous support from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Center for Cultural Innovation, Cork City Council, San Francisco Art Institute and Arizona State University. Her studio is located in Yelamu, also known as San Francisco, on the unceded territories of Ramaytush Ohlone peoples. Wells was named by Create! Magazine to be on the list of Top 15 Artists to Follow on Social Media. You are welcome to visit her on social. Wells was recently interviewed on the New Visionary Podcast with Victoria J. Fry on How to Bring More Joy & Self-Compassion into Your Art Practice. MFA Painting, San Francisco Art Institute, 2013 BFA Painting & Art Education, Arizona State University, 2010 ingridvwells.com @ingridvwells |
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STATEMENT
My oil paintings reflect the feminine spectacle. The over-the-top, sparkling works deliver a feminist message, celebrating the hilarity and ridiculousness of growing up female in America. Pageantry and fanfare often find themselves in my work.
Here is the beginning of my new series Spectacle, comprised of 20 paintings that will be complete at the end of 2019. In this new series, the paintings reflect miniature plasticine trinkets from girlhood, painted as shiny still lives and inflated to grand proportions. The images provoke a bizarre, almost suffocating encounter between viewer and the enlarged, gendered objects. These silly still lives are depicted in variations of luscious pinks and reds across the canvas. Working in oil lends a genuine quality to the images, giving way to the rich nature of the swirled frosting and brightly colored plastic objects. Taken individually the trifles are simply cute bunnies, stars, adorable pandas, scrumptious cupcakes, Hello Kitties and shiny bows. Yet clustered into a candied extravaganza, the image’s complexity deepens and the sugary mass of artificial happiness overwhelms.
This line of inquiry speaks to the pressure of maintaining the ideal woman’s voice as charming, precious, and small. Each painting is a loud parade of honeyed, traditional feminine qualities. Together this series aims to provide a place of reflection, asks you to question your rose-colored glasses, and ultimately works to dismantle the patriarchy (in the sweetest way possible).
My oil paintings reflect the feminine spectacle. The over-the-top, sparkling works deliver a feminist message, celebrating the hilarity and ridiculousness of growing up female in America. Pageantry and fanfare often find themselves in my work.
Here is the beginning of my new series Spectacle, comprised of 20 paintings that will be complete at the end of 2019. In this new series, the paintings reflect miniature plasticine trinkets from girlhood, painted as shiny still lives and inflated to grand proportions. The images provoke a bizarre, almost suffocating encounter between viewer and the enlarged, gendered objects. These silly still lives are depicted in variations of luscious pinks and reds across the canvas. Working in oil lends a genuine quality to the images, giving way to the rich nature of the swirled frosting and brightly colored plastic objects. Taken individually the trifles are simply cute bunnies, stars, adorable pandas, scrumptious cupcakes, Hello Kitties and shiny bows. Yet clustered into a candied extravaganza, the image’s complexity deepens and the sugary mass of artificial happiness overwhelms.
This line of inquiry speaks to the pressure of maintaining the ideal woman’s voice as charming, precious, and small. Each painting is a loud parade of honeyed, traditional feminine qualities. Together this series aims to provide a place of reflection, asks you to question your rose-colored glasses, and ultimately works to dismantle the patriarchy (in the sweetest way possible).
