London-based Chloe Early (Irish, b. 1980) has adopted tropes from the history of Western painting, smoothly merging figuration and abstraction. Drawn from historical sources, Early’s chosen figures evoke both romantic and Renaissance paintings in their allegorical functions, suggesting pleasure/pain, agony/ecstasy. “I’ve always been interested in opposites in my work and exploring themes which can have a dual interpretation,” Early said. She paints bodies among clusters of images such as planes, birds, and carnival rides, yet the representational elements of her paintings dissolve into painterly swaths of colors, dripped and scraped across compositions. Each painting, often comprised of oil on aluminum, offers a lush and luminous play with light.
