Pat Treyer
Pat Treyer’s current paintings are characterized by iconic female figures, often decidedly nude, presented in a ruthless manner to our eyes.
Pat Treyer’s current paintings are characterized by iconic female figures, often decidedly nude, presented in a ruthless manner to our eyes. However, the much-vaunted femininity is usually only worth a succinct outline of the breasts and a pointed pubic triangle to the artist, sometimes accompanied by an oversized penis that leads a dazzling existence between trophy and nightmare. Strikingly yet abstractly presented, sexual gender plays a prominent role in the fantastical female figures in Pat Treyer’s paintings. Through them, the artist has been exploring the existential possibilities and dead ends of female existence for decades. With the deliberate use of wild brushwork and a strong color scale – in which black and red play an important role – the artist evokes the passions and feelings of her characters, but also their exposure in our society, which commercially and politically exploits female nudity. However, Pat Treyer’s bodies possess powerful and autochthonous powers that shimmer like a chameleon and burst with visible energy. In this way, they wonderfully easily subvert the societal definitions associated with female biology. This subversive resistance to the female body as an object has given the artist’s paintings an unbroken topicality for years.
Susann Wintsch, Curator
