Spiritual allegory meets modern family in some of the pictures at the New Deal Café exhibit of Amanda Demos Larsen’s work this season. In one of her self-portraits, He Did Eat, Larsen veils her gaze and holds a sharp knife while handing her spouse a slice of apple. In another, Afraid to Look, Larsen shows herself bending over to remove her shoes, with small toys scattered around her feet. “It’s like Moses, holy ground,” she said.
A piece of IKEA wooden railroad track hovers in the lower left foreground, becoming more and more iconic as it draws attention – an examination of the artist’s work, motherhood and finding one’s path through the spilled Cheerios. Because Larsen demonstrates such control over her paint surface, the blotchy quality around her feet means something, challenging the viewer to decide exactly what.
Larsen is showing her oil portraits at the New Deal Café through April 16, with an artist reception on March 11. Larsen’s show features 11 paintings, all portraits, evidence of her lifelong fascination with face and form. Seven are smaller paintings, painted over the last six months, and are intended to be viewed together as a series. The show is sponsored by Friends of New Deal Café Arts (FONDCA), a non-profit organization that promotes visual, performing and literary arts. For more on this story, click here.