Celestine

Extinction Dance
60" x 48"
Acrylic on canvas

Someone I've recently had the good fortune of getting to know is a lovely young artist who goes by the name of Celestine. Having exhibited together at a couple of group shows here, it was a real pleasure the other day then to be given a personal tour of her solo exhibition at Pulse gallery.

Celestine-or Fei as I know her-was raised in China, and although she trained briefly in what she calls 'the Russian school of painting' when she was young, didn't begin her artistic odyssey until very recently.

One would never know.

The mess you left behind
30" x 24"
Oil on canvas

Her work seems thematically placed somewhere between the sensual half light of 80's film noir stained by an underbelly of vice and the muscular strokes of expressionism. Her paintings give that uneasy vantage point, through the so called Hollywood high life, late night last bubbles of bourbon and cocaine, and the toxic haze of cigar smoke.

The brittle beautiful child of Terry Rodgers and Eric Fischl without the sterility.

Beautiful Liar
40" x 40"
Oil on canvas

Sadly it's the final day before her show comes down, but anyone in the vicinity should catch this showcase if they can. Everyone else should follow what she does here-I fully intend to:

Celestine-in Darkness and Light.