I spent some very rewarding time in Gallery 110 this afternoon, looking at work by Pam Berglundh and Elizabeth Halfacre. Berglundh apparently talked her friends into posing for her in their underwear. There’s a ruthless quality to the way she digs in to emphasize every roll over the pantyline, but the ruthlessness seems directed more at the viewer (“There it is. Deal with it.”) than at the subjects, who calmly look you in the eye.
The work is very reminiscent of Alice Neel, especially in the 1940s and '50s, when her palette was heavier and she filled the canvas. Berglundh’s painting is very much about drawing, as was Neel’s. And she even has a very pregnant woman among her subjects. (Neel said “I feel as a subject it’s perfectly legitimate, and people out of false modesty, or being sissies, never showed it, but it’s a basic fact of life.” Patricia Hills, Alice Neel, p.162.)
Halfacre creates images out of collage, and I found her figures quite satisfying. Her Speaking Words of Wisdom (think the Beatles: “Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be”) looks like a Byzantine icon painted by a Cubist. The bald head in Cancer in My Pocket comes from an original drawing and from (I assume) an ancient Greek head. Pictures of Egyptian relief sculpture and floral textiles create form and pattern.
