Chloe West is a figurative painter, who creates incredibly visceral tableaux. Working primarily with oil on canvas, her paintings host cropped fragments of the female form, replicating collarbones, torsos or hands in immense detail. The heavy contrast West applies between light and shade is reminiscent of Baroque depictions of flesh, with bodily folds and arches being crisply replicated. These intimate depictions are surreally situated within the uninhabited plains and prairies of Cheyenne, Wyoming, where the artist grew up. Animal bones collected during walks in these terrains are then painted on top of these bodies, shadowing the natural physique of the original form. Boundaries between landscape and the self dissolve, as markers of nature, life and death coalesce in these mystical frames. West cites her obsession with 17th-century Flemish and Dutch painting, in particular, she’s fascinated by the metaphysical aspects of memento mori and vanitas paintings. These diverse art historical references surface in intricate forms within West’s practice, as she wrestles histories of representation within her own distinct oeuvre. ...
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