Gina Beavers paints images mined from social media, replicating this material in thick marbled acrylic on linen. Using her disarmingly photorealistic painterly style, she replicates mouth-watering foodporn, images of sweaty bodybuilders or stills from makeup tutorials. Often comically blurring these visual pools, a woman’s body may be cut into as a slice of cake, or tutorial stills are repeated ad infinitum. Drooping globules of ketchup trickle down the canvas, painted lips look wet to the touch and beads of sweat glisten in these glossy, three-dimensional paintings. With an eye for sensuality, gluttony and pleasure, Beaver’s paintings look deeply at the emotive depth of internet culture, teasing out signifiers of class, consumption and bravado within curated online profiles. Tackling this contemporary media as a landscape artist would a meadow or a valley, the minutia of consumer culture are crystallised by her brushstrokes. Taking a seat at the table with other photorealist painters such as Wayne Thiebaud and Ralph Goings, Beavers shares their fascination for food, but her dissection of consumption in relation to digital cultures places her firmly in the contemporary moment. ...
