Tag Archive "kate-javens"

Animal stand-ins for humans – Kate Javens’ Euphoria at Schmidt Dean

It’s not surprising that Kate Javens chooses animals to represent humans. With their rich, symbolic meaning, animals allow Javens to convey qualities other than physical appearance. Javens’ series of animal portraits, Euphoria, is a memorial to Harlem community organizer Reverend Linnette C. Williamson, who is portrayed by elephants in five of the show’s nine works. In “Euphoria, For the Rev, No. 1″ and its mirror image “No.2“, painted in a cooler palette, an elephant is depicted with its mouth open and trunk flung in the air, expelling noise.  As a preacher and vocal advocate for her Harlem community, the image ... More » »

Interior beast–Kate Javens at Schmidt/Dean

Installation detail of Kate Javens’ exhibit, Father Ram and Green Darner at SchmidtDean Gallery. The large Father Ram on the right is 66 x 106 inches, oil on linen. In paintings of powerful, ruminating rams, artist Kate Javens creates portraits of humans. Javens has long been a painter of man as beast and beast as man, and in her wonderful 11-painting exhibit, Father Ram and Green Darner, at SchmidtDean Gallery, she takes this work in a new direction. The identity between humans and the rams is clear, even if Javens hadn’t inserted a portrait of her father as a young ... More » »