Evalie Wagner Paintings

Evalie Wagner Paintings

From Gerhard Richter’s Betty, to Pete Hawkin’s In Hindsight there’s an enigmatic and arresting quality to the painted portrait whose subject turns away from the viewer.

This series of Evalie Wagner paintings are no exception. The circular portals draw us in to a painted world, a world where the subject is further away still, engaged on the other side, a realm we will never see.

This visual and emotional obstacle can leave us feeling alienated and distanced from the subject. Or, conversely, attract us to further investigate and imagine what we can’t quite see.

Evalie Wagner’s series of turned away portraits depict four young women and a lone man staring off into a vast and undefined space.

Their distant, unseen gaze is in sharp contrast to the two-dimensional closeness of the patterns of their clothing.

David Hockney often quoted the mystical poet George Herbert on pondering the portrayal of water or glass: “A man may look on glass, on it may stay his eye or if he pleases through it pass, and there the heaven espy”. In a similar way Wagner’s paintings let us choose which realm our eyes perceive.

About The Artist

Evalie Wagner is an Autrian based artist with a Masters degree painting at the University of art and industrial design, Linz. See the about page on her website for more details on her work and practice.

Evalie Wagner Online

• Evalie Wagner · Website
• Evalie Wagner · Saatchi Art