ARTIST OVERVIEW

Ann Gale (b. 1966–) is a figure painter whose penetrating, psychological portraiture explores the psychology and sexuality of both artist and subject. Like those artists she cites as influences, Antonio López Garcia and Lucian Freud, and particularly, the sculptor, Alberto Giacometti, Gale approaches the figure as an opportunity to discover and undress the human psyche.

According to critic Michael Duncan, "Gale finds in all her subjects a center of gravity, a realm beyond "thingness" where we can see and feel the fathomless presence of existence."¹ This deconstruction of objective reality is reminiscent of the paintings of Cézanne. By avoiding the appearance of visual surety, Gale's paintings, like Cézanne's, are imbued with a deep skepticism regarding reality's true nature² and, in Gale's case, reveal the discomfortingly intimate relationship between model and artist.

Gale's work process, complex and rigorous, is intrinsic to her goal. She works slowly, drawing and painting directly from the model over a period of many weeks or months. Over time, the emotional and physical demands of maintaining such close, intimate contact with her subject leads to a dematerialization and fragmentation of the painted figure. This breakdown is expressed visually through Gale's use of short, fragmented brushstrokes that merge the figure with the ground.

Ann Gale received her BFA from Rhode Island College, Providence, RI, and her MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT. Since graduating in 1991, Gale has had two solo exhibitions at Hackett-Freedman Gallery, and has been featured on the PBS program, "Egg: The Arts Show" and in Curve The Female Nude Now (Rizzoli, 2003). A professor at the University of Washington School of Art in Seattle, Gale has been the recipient of numerous grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (2008), an Artist Trust Grant/GAP Award (2003), a WESTAF/ National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1996), and an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (1997).

 1. Michael Duncan, "In the Center of Gravity: Ann Gale's Portraits," in Ann Gale (San Francisco: Hackett-Freedman Gallery, 2000)

2. Bruce Nixon, "The Eye of the Beholder: Recent Paintings by Ann Gale" in Ann Gale (San Francisco: Hackett-Freedman Gallery, 2004).