Elena Sisto: Empathy Machine

JANUARY 7th - APRIL 3rd, 2021

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Shoshana Wayne Gallery is pleased to present an online-exclusive exhibition of the work of New York-based painter Elena Sisto, “Empathy Machine,” and her first solo show at the gallery, consisting of over 20 graphic, gleeful paintings in India ink and graphite on masonite made in response to the rapidly changing social, cultural and political events of the past few months and years.

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Women are the protagonists in her paintings, of all ages and types and engaged in everything from climbing mountains, brandishing weapons, to responding to threats of global warming, the trials of quarantine and social distancing along with civil unrest during the Covid 19 pandemic. Themes of bravery, caring, companionship and solidarity abound in these paintings coupled with a more subtle message of strength and resilience.

Sisto describes the central female character in her paintings as an anima or avatar, loosely modeled on events and feelings from her own life but also the imagination and news media images as well as dreams. “I think of my character as a loose proxy, a being of internal feeling rather than external looks that I can send into the world to do things I've never done, will never do, and that can enter difficult situations I'm interested in—sort of an empathy machine.”

The formal female figure evolved from cartoon characters of compelling women, especially Olive Oyl, girlfriend of Popeye, though greatly simplified, abstracted, exaggerated or made indeterminate to better slip in and out of different social roles and situations. The artist’s idea was to create immediate character recognition for the viewer but with sufficient ambiguity, verve and wit so as to enable broader, even universal identification. She is an everywoman, one with power and vulnerability but also potential.

Besides Olive Oyl, Daisy Mae from Li'l Abner is frequently referenced in these works, albeit in an elliptical fashion along with other popular cultural characters like Snow White, Annie Oakley, Nancy or the warrior women starring in films like the Hunger Games and Wonder Woman. The graphics of Matisse also remain a formal touchstone for the artist not surprisingly. “I go back to him always,” Sisto says, “the brilliance and joy of his work and the idea that the pose of the figure is the sign for the movement of the space.”

Sisto works these paintings using a subtractive process of her own invention. The figures are drawn up with pencil on an all black ground, built with layers of India ink, and then are subsequently carved out with a sharp instrument similar to the process of etching or dry point. The graphic intensity of the final images coupled with restriction of color gives the paintings an editorial quality, as if the artist is bearing witness to events. Equally important is the relationship between negative and positive space, the artist throwing her figures and their actions into sharp, almost heroic relief resembling monochromatic mythological scenes depicted on Grecian vases.

Elena Sisto lives and works in New York. She received her BA in Art from Brown University and studied at the New York Studio School. Sisto has exhibited at numerous museums including the Miami Dade Museum of Art + Design (2012), Katzen Museum of Art at American University, Washington, DC (2008), Maier Museum, VA (1999), Greenville County Museum, SC (1997), and Wexner Center for the Arts (1992), among others. In addition, she was included in the 43rd Biennial of Contemporary American Painting at The Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC (1993-94). She is the recipient of several awards and fellowships including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2013), the Inglis Griswold Nelson Prize from the National Academy Museum and School (2008), and the National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist's Fellowship (1984-85 & 1989-90). In 2015, she was inducted as a fellow to the National Academy of Design.