Lisa Yuskavage's "Rendez-vous" @ David Zwirner in Paris

© Lisa Yuskavage. Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner.

© Lisa Yuskavage. Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner.

One of the most original and influential artists of the past three decades, Lisa Yuskavage creates works that affirm the singularity of the medium of painting while challenging conventional understandings of genres and viewership.

In Rendez-vous, Yuskavage presents new large-scale paintings, each set within an imagined artist’s studio. Saturated in deep, jewel-like pigments, these works form part of her ongoing exploration of the processes and complexities of art making. The studios become stages where characters from her oeuvre are intertwined, and where time moves backward and forward.

The “rendez-vous” of the show’s title alludes to the unique way in which painting allows for different moments in time to coexist in one space simultaneously. The works establish a dialogue between personal iconography and a tradition of studio portrayals by artists as varied as Gustave Courbet, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, and more contemporary figures like Philip Guston and Bruce Nauman.

Rendez-vous is on view through July 29 @ David Zwirner, 108 rue Vieille du Temple Paris

Lisa Yuskavage "The Brood" At The Rose Art Museum in Waltham, Massachusetts

Lisa Yuskavage’s select showcase of “trouble causing” oil paintings opened this past week at Brandeis University’s The Rose Gallery. Yuskavage noted that “the first thing I do is paint the eyes looking at you,” a technique that encapsulates the intensely surrealistic, animated life in her paintings. Unabashedly female, and verging erotic, Yuskavage’s works certainly speak for themselves. Lisa Yuskavage "The Brood" can also be found as a monograph (purchase here) – the exhibition will be on view until December 13, 2015 the Rose Art Museum in Waltham, Massachusetts. photographs by Tenlie Mourning