Peggy Serdula
Artist Statement
I only paint with carbon black acrylic on primed canvas to convey immediate emotional impact in my large and small portraits and abstracts. Dramatic portrayal of depth of character rather than a decorative approach is what I'm after. Almost all these images come from spontaneous inspiration - not models. Film noir has always appealed to me and perhaps influenced this color choice. I want to capture that same sense of intrigue with a glimpse, a gesture that says it all. My experience as a professional model with pose and movement has sharpened my artistic eye. Pastels and drawings from 1993-2012 are also presented in this first solo exhibit.
Curatorial Statement
New York City plays host to searing adversity and incomprehensible privilege. Its bustling streets mirror a microcosm that reflects a much larger landscape. As wealth is hoarded and poverty surges, we spirial into a more complex and vexing existence. This is the legacy of the digital revolution – an epoch that has systematically destroyed face-to-face human contact. As an über-connected universe spreads like wild fire and a “wired world” becomes de rigueur, real human interaction is replaced with a sense of digital belonging to environments that never really exist – worlds so fleeting they are forgotten as quickly as they emerge.
In Serdula’s work, we are riveted in a real and resonant world – one that cannot be abbreviated into digital form. The emotional catastrophes of a thousand nuanced actions are reflected in portraits that peer at us from Serdula’s stark canvasses. Her characters rivet us in the moment – we are confronted with a reality that has hitherto been hidden.
Lola explodes off the canvas to confront us. She exists in a whirlwind of chaos, that only she controls. We are invited to enter, but the threat of oblivion is too great. Rachel is more reticent. Her deep-set eyes wait for an event that will remove her from the edge of a precipice. Woman in Scarf looks ahead with a resolute gaze. She has endured much but she possesses resilience – a steadfast determination that compels us.
Serdula’s simplicity of palette allows her to pull us into a complex and fractured narrative populated by a diversity of emotional beings – it is difficult to look away.
---- Deborah Johnstone