Cris Brodahl
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Cris Brodahl (born 1963, Ghent, Belgium) is an artist based in Ghent.
Brodahl has shown internationally in exhibitions including “Cut” at The Approach in London, “Michael Bauer, Cris Brodahl, Stef Driesen” at Marc Foxx in Los Angeles and “The Triumph of Painting” at the Saatchi Gallery [1] in London. She is represented by The Approach [2] in London and Marc Foxx [3] in Los Angeles.
Cris Brodahl’s work is based on collages she makes using imagery derived from a variety of sources. Brodahl then transforms the collages into photorealistic paintings, usually in sepia or grey-toned colours, which are highly reminiscent of the psychologically charged cut-and-paste style works of the Surrealists. Brodahl’s imagery of choice is the body, more often than not female, but transformed via the addition of disparate pieces of evocative visual material, such as flowers. Brodahl’s compositions are unsettlingly bland – the nature of the dramatically cut and reformed bodies is obscured by the lack of colour and visual context so that the ‘figures’ become beautiful simply because they are presented in such a way. Brodahl’s handling of paint makes her impossible images seem almost normal; painting some pieces as is they were based on photographs – including the out of focus backgrounds for example – adds authenticity to visuals which are clearly not real, nor in any way desirable, and somehow convinces the viewer that everything is as it should be and no one should want it any other way.
