From the look of her edgy paintings, Isabel Samaras is a badass. No wonder we’re so excited to get to see her latest works in person at her upcoming solo show, Into The Woodz, at The Shooting Gallery in San Francisco. Opening May 9th 2009, Samaras will rewrite a classic child's fairy tale in this collection of oil paintings. More here…

From the look of her edgy paintings, Isabel Samaras is a badass. No wonder we’re so excited to get to see her latest works in person at her upcoming solo show, Into The Woodz, at The Shooting Gallery in San Francisco. Opening May 9th 2009, Samaras will rewrite a classic child's fairy tale in this collection of oil paintings. 

Through Into The Woodz, Samaras re-imagines the traditional fable of Goldilocks and The Three Bears into a modern day romance. In one painting titled "Honey Dripper" (above) Samaras riffs on the French Neoclassical Ingres' Turkish painting called “The Bather of Valpincon”, depicting apple-cheeked Goldy at a wooded hot springs with the three bears. Goldy has taken on a different look, sexier and a bit more trendy, with an elaborate back tattoo of a huge bee hive with an arrow through it.

The distant background the Woodland Fabulous forest is inhabited by blinged-out critters. Some include a porcupine with "love/hate" knuckle rings and a big black-power afro-pick stuck in his quills; a European red squirrel sporting a dookie chain with a huge gold acorn on it; and a boom box jammed up in a tree with a flock of mocking birds sitting on it having a "rap war." This story tells of a girl who didn't trade her identity in for a tiara, but she found true love (and love conquers all, even inter-species romance!).

Samaras’ work is a form of visual story telling – witty, mysterious, and tender. Her painted narratives, classical in technique and pop in content, revolve around issues of secret love, unrequited lust and making things end the way we wish they would. While some paintings are reminiscent of formal Renaissance portraiture, others set in the woods are a bit more intuitive. The oil painted wood panels are lush with bold and sexy colors are complimented by a series of pencil drawings dashed with gold watercolor and framed in vintage "black forest" style wooden frames.  Comparing her work to postmodern painting, one critic writes, “Samaras has created a truly populist art."

Into The Woodz comes to The Shooting Gallery May 9th through June 4th 2009. More at www.shootinggallerysf.com

More on Isabel at www.astrocat.com/samaras

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