This Ain't No Party, This Ain't No Disco

I make imaginative, composite portraits of women in varying states of visibility, playing with and against genre conventions of portraiture in western art. I paint until a specific presence emerges through the process, not a particular likeness. The paintings contrast interiority and persona, with the surfaces ranging from areas scraped down to bare wood to passages of lush paint, often displaying traces of ghost lines. Artists who inspire me include Paula Modersohn-Becker, Anni Albers and Chantal Joffe, among others. Drawing on memory, contemporary culture and art history, the paintings embody ideas of transformation, empathy and the female gaze.

This Ain't No Party, This Ain't No Disco is the refrain in a Talking Heads song*, part of the soundtrack of my formative years as an artist, and it also references the current cultural moment.

* “Life During Wartime” by Talking Heads, from the 1979 album Fear of Music.

COLLEEN KIELY

COLLEEN KIELY