EVOKE Contemporary | Opens 4/24 | Santa Fe, NM

Repose

A freedom from worry

In April, 10 beautifully crafted, photorealistic paintings by Lee Price will be highlighted as a retrospective at EVOKE Contemporary. Price’s early work focused on the emotionally charged topic of eating disorders, and while the theme is still present in her recent pieces, the tone now yields a more healing message. The show, titled Repose, is a look at the evolution of Price’s work, from passionately aware to a “freedom of worry,” as the title definition suggests.

After decades of suffering from a binge eating disorder, Price noticed that her work was talking back to her. “It wasn’t exactly cathartic to do these paintings,” she says. “When I started my first painting, I didn’t realize I was actually painting about my disorder. Once I realized it, I was able to continue and then it morphed into different themes over the years.”Surfacing (triptych), oil on linen, 64 x 28" each panel

Price’s earliest work dealt primarily with binge eating, with self-portrait scenes in beds and bathtubs surrounded by oodles of food. In 2013, the theme changed and became “less frenetic.” She furthers, “If you look at the piece Empty Plates, I’m going away from the discussion on binge eating. They turned into very quiet paintings.”

In 2015, Price painted Flowers, which showed a figure in a bathtub, but this time there’s no food present. “It’s a tub painting where the surface of the water is covered in flowers,” she explains. “This was a reaction to the earlier work, especially after receiving emails from women expressing how my work made them feel less alone in their own struggle. I wanted to do a painting that was about taking away the pain and focus more on healing.”Ali’s Meal, oil on linen, 44 x 33"

The theme turned yet another direction in 2016 with Price’s new series titled Surfacing. The collection consisted of five pieces that were intended to be viewed together, depicting herself in a bathtub submerged in water. She explains, “My face is distorted by the water and is a symbol of how women tend to distort themselves physically like with dieting or surgery. It’s also an emotional distortion when we invalidate ourselves to fit into a patriarchal world.” The title of the series is meant to evoke a sense of rebirth and can also be taken as a baptism or a transformation.

The show will also have paintings from 2017, when Price was focused on her portrait series seen in her piece, Self Portrait with Parfait in Floral Room. “These were about acceptance and turning the idea of a traditional portrait on its head,” she says. “They’re not attractive images of myself. I’m not trying to look good…I’m eating food and staring straight at the viewer. It’s more like the anti-portrait portrait. It’s also about how women are often seen as decorative objects.”Flowers, oil on linen, 65 x 29"

The most recent piece of work made in 2019, also included in the show, is titled Ali’s Meal. Food is back in the picture but all figures are absent. For her previous paintings, Price always used a photographer to get the best possible pose, but for Ali’s Meal, she used an image from her niece showing plates of leftover food at a restaurant dinner table. This is just the first step toward a new direction for Price.

Beginning April 24, viewers can visit the collection in all its glory, as it will span nearly 10 years of Price’s work. She continues, “All of these paintings, although from different points of my general theme of women and food, all have something to do with freedom from worry and a state of rest.” —

EVOKE Contemporary • 550 S. Guadalupe Street • Santa Fe, NM 87501 • (505) 995-9902 • www.evokecontemporary.com