BY ELISA CAROLLO
Exploring social media-derived visual landscapes since the early 2000s and translating them into hyperrealistic relief paintings, artist Gina Beavers has deeply examined how those contribute to selfhood and the construction of identity. In this new body of work, “Comfortcore Paintings,” the artist focused on the seductive promise of conformity offered by retail showcases of blankets, towels and other “cozy” domestic decors on different online platforms. Scrolling through the endless flux of images Beavers has pulled out from the internet, and as “Divine Consumer,” she has intuitively reworked those in digital collages to remediate them on panels with a laborious process of “materialization” with foam, paper pulp and paint. The resulting uncanny 3D blowups emphasize their seductive tactile qualities that encourage compulsive purchases on the promise of “comfort.” Eventually, as the artist observes, those ads become comforting, as they don’t ask us to do more than buy, and they offer respite from the polarized and often subtle political messages hidden in many digital images we encounter in our scrolling. “There’s this idea of divine inspiration when you’re collating, as you’re putting things together,” she told Observer. “I’m creating something independently from this chaos.”
