Genieve Figgis

Genieve Figgis’ paintings share a similar dramatic bent as some Irish-English literature subjects from Edgar Allan Poe to Oscar Wilde, as well as acknowledged Old Masters such as Goya. Working in oil and acrylic and at small- to mid-scale, Genieve Figgis produces paintings rich in color, texture, humor, and the macabre. Through her work, she explores and sends-up the idealization of luxury and leisure in paintings and photographs throughout art history. Like these historical works, her paintings feature sumptuous domestic interiors and stately country homes, idyllic natural settings, and protagonists dressed in finery and engaged in such activities as feasting, horseback riding, playing piano, or attending a party. Figgis’s body of work also includes her take on the tradition of portraiture and the odalisque. In her compositions, however, all is not well. Her figures appear either faceless or as foolishly grinning, ghoul-like creatures, whose loosely rendered forms seem vulnerable and insubstantial as they merge with their lushly painted, semi-abstract surroundings.