John Currin

John Currin

The Bra Shop, 1997, oil on canvas

Kiev, 2008, oil on canvas

John Currin is a figurative painter influenced by Renaissance oil paintings, contemporary culture, politics, and women's magazines.

He creates parodies of our sex-obsessed culture through distortion of the human figure. Main themes include pornographic eroticism and manipulation. Often his portraits appear satirical, kitschy, and humorous. Over time his works have gotten much more explicitly erotic.

Marlene Dumas

Marlene Dumas

Marlene Dumas' paintings blur the lines of race and identity. She is interested in the ambiguous divide between the public and private self. She also includes themes of sexuality, empowerment, and exploitation.

Formally she works from photographic imagery. The emotional, carnal quality of her images redefines the content of her sources. She uses oil paint on canvas in high contrasting colors or fluid watercolor on paper.