The human figure tells a story. Every corporeal form on this earth comes etched with that person’s past experiences, their pain, their joy, the subtle quirks and ways in which they carry themselves through the world. This doesn’t pertain to just physique, sex or gender expression—although these elements can greatly inform a person—but that of a childhood scar, a slouching gait, a tiny chip in your tooth from an accident that occurred decades ago or perhaps something chosen, like a tattoo.Sarah Marie Lacy, The White Oval Tattoo, oil on linen, 20 x 16"

“I’ve always been fascinated by the human body as an artist. I think between intensive ballet training as a child and developing serious chronic health issues as a young teenager, the body became something I was intensely aware of, not just as the vehicle in which I moved through life, but as an entity that carried its own stories,” says figurative artist Sarah Marie Lacy. While her realist paintings and portraits, rendered mainly in oil or pencil, capture the complexities of the figure on a physical level, the real power behind her art is her ability to capture the things we can’t see—the emotion and the soul. “The more time I’ve spent studying the human body through drawing and painting, the more I’ve become fascinated by how much of someone’s life gets written on their bodies: their skin, their bones, how they hold themselves. Every new person is like a new landscape to explore,” she says. “I prefer to work directly from life, but typically work with a combination of live models and reference photos.”

Running through December 12, Painting the Figure Now III, hosted by the Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art in Wausau, Wisconsin, sets out to gather some of the most technically exquisite and emotionally poignant figure paintings and portraits by contemporary artists today. The exhibition strives to bring us artwork that delves into the myriad ways that we view the human form through a modern lens, depicting the figure in action, work, play and rest.Marc Duquette, Soup at the Bar, oil on canvas, 20 x 30"

“In curating this show I looked for works that were not only technically excellent, but also captured my attention in a different way and made me think beyond the represented figure,” says narrative artist F. Scott Hess, who guest curated the exhibition alongside David Hummer of the Wausau Museum and Didi Menendez of PoetsArtists. “This might be political/social commentary, or it might be visually poetic, or intrigue with narrative or humor, or relate to painting’s grand history, or deliver a strong sense of what it is to be human,” he continues. “I wanted paintings that delivered a view of existence in today’s world. We are living in very difficult times, and I expect artists to be saying more about our experience during this period than just reproducing a pretty face or a nice body.”

Gayle Madeira, whose oil on aluminum Taking The A Train depicts an older gentleman in a moment of respite, says that figure paintings, for her, “should capture the true feeling and spirit of a person, not just the hard facts of their physical body.” The piece is an “ode to the great older gentlemen and ladies who still take immense care with their outfits and are incredibly stylish,” she adds.Barbara Hack, Jerome: A Life’s Collage, oil on canvas, 30 x 24"

Exploring the dozens of works on display in the show is akin to venturing into a cavern. The depth feels endless, and yet, with every step, something new and beautiful is uncovered. Contemporary movers and shakers like Julie Heffernan, Shawn Michael Warren, Brianna Lee, Junyi Liu, Rasha Alem, Victor Wang, Alicia Brown, Devon Rodriguez and many others, all bring something different to the table.

“This model is one of my muses; there’s just something about her face and bone structure that fascinated me immediately,” Lacy says of her oil on linen The White Oval Tattoo, a simple head-on portrait with a delicate blue backdrop. “Her bones are so elegant, particularly her collarbones. I noticed one day that she had this very faint white oval tattoo on her upper chest and something about it really caught my eye; it was so subtle, like a secret signal. It seemed sacred somehow, a little magical, a little enigmatic. I never asked her what it meant because I wanted it to stay a secret. The personal meaning she invested in it was hers to keep.”Brianna Lee, Pneuma - Portrait of Eve-Marie, oil on panel, 24 x 18"

Conor Walton sees himself as a figurative painter in the European tradition. His oil Siren depicts the dangerous humanlike creature of Greek mythology. “Siren is part of a series of ‘allegories of painting’ depicting figures which symbolically represent or enact some aspect of painting as I conceive it. The task of the siren is to beguile and lure passersby with her beauty and the seductiveness of her song. I think the role of the painter is similar. I wanted my siren to be really beautiful, sexy, ecstatic, but also innocent and lost in her song. I wanted to suggest that her ecstasy isn’t merely physical or sexual but also spiritual,” he explains.

Also part of the exhibition is Barbara Hack’s Jerome: A Life’s Collage, a poignant piece of an older man with years of life experience evident in his eyes, in the lines on his face and in the graying of his beard. The man is surrounded by clippings of parts of his past, perhaps a younger version of himself, an important female presence in his life and other imagery. “I based my painting Jerome: A Life’s Collage on the experiences of my longtime friend,” says Hack. “He does not live his life like everyone else. He wrote his own story. He has been a singer, a song-writer, a poet and now a collage artist.”Devon Rodriguez, Reflection, oil on wood, 30 x 30"

Story informs the paintings and drawings of Patricia Schappler “as a conceptual justification for making something,” but the artist says she finds it difficult to define her work with any level of absolute certainty. “My goal is to evoke. Contrasts of body language, lighting, air and movement help me uncover rhythms which then encourage the surface, and those shifts bring me back to boundary, pattern, shape…it’s cyclical. This begins a dialogue.”

Along with viewing the show at the museum or on its website, collectors can get an extended look at Painting the Figure Now III online through 33 Contemporary Gallery’s Artsy page until December 31. —

Painting the Figure Now III
When: Through December 12, 2020
Where: Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, 309 McClellan Street, Wausau, WI 54403
Information: (715) 298-4470, www.wmoca.org

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